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EXERCISES 



IN CELEBRATING THE 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



SETTLEMENT OF CAMBRIDGE r...... 



Held December 28, 1880 




PrintcS fag orttr of tljc Citg Cnuncil 



CAJMBRIDGE 
CHARLES W. SEVER 

JSnibtrsttg JSnoftstore 
1881 




The extemporaneous speeches at the Celebration were stenographed, and the 
volume edited, liij Robert P. Clapp. 




<c 






J1 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introductory Note 7 

Invited Guests 12 

Form of Invitation 14 

The Celkbration 15 

The Morning Exercisks 19 

Prayer by the Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D 21 

Opening Address by Mayor J. M. W. Hall 22 

Address by President Charles AV. Eliot 2o 

Remarks by Henry W. Longfellow 29 

" From my Arm-chair " 30 

Poem by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 32 

" Home " 33 

The Afternoon Exercises 39 

Prayer by the Rev. William Newell, D.D 40 

Oration by Thomas Wentworth Higginson 44 

The Banquet 09 

Opening Address by M.ayor . J. M. W. Hall 71 

Response by Collector A. W. Pieard 79 

Response by Dr. William Everett 85 

"Naming Cambridge, 163G" 86 



IV CONTENTS. 

'J'liE Banquet, continued. 

PAGE 

Response by Governor John D. Long 88 

Response by President Charles W. Eliot 94 

Response by the Hon. .John W. Candler 9« 

Response by the Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D. . . . 104 

Response by Col. T. W. Iligginson 1 1 I 

Response by the Hon. H. O. Houghton 114 

Response by the Hon. Charles H. Saunders 118 

Correspondence 1"24 

Appendix 12'.i 

Memorial Tablets in Cambridge 131 

Cambridge, 1630—1880 138 

Government of the City of Cambridge, 1880 153 

Chronological Catalogue ISfi 

Index 157 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Henry TVADSWORTn Longfellow 29 

Oliver Wendell Holmes 32 

Lowell's House 57 

Longfellow's House 58 

The Holmes House 62 

The Memorial Hall and the Sanders Theatre ... 97 

John Winthrop 104 

James Russell Lowell 127 

The Washington Elm and the Shepard Memorial 

Church 137 



Note. — The portrait of Winthrop, taken from "The Memorial History of Bos- 
ton," is used by permission of the publishers, James R. Osgood and Compaxy. 
The cuts of the Memorial Hall and of Holmes are loaned by Moses Kixg, 
editor of "The Harvard Register;" that of Lowell's House, by D. Lotheop and 
Company; and those of Longfellow and Lowell, and of Longfellow's House, by 
HocGHTON, Mifflin, and Company. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



B 



Y order of the City Council the following record is 
printed of the proceedings by the city of Cambridge in 
commemorating her two hundred and fiftieth birthday, — a 
record, it is hoped, that will be worthy of a permanent place 
beside the other volumes that picture the proud memories of 
this famous city. The celebration, five years ago, of the one 
hundredth anniversary of Washington's taking command of 
tlie Continental army, revived, and has kept fresh in the public 
mind, the memorable events that associate Cambridge with 
the Revolution ; but in the incidents of her earlier days, — the 
struggles and triumphs of her founders, — people had taken 
but little interest. No anniversary day of the settlement had 
ever been publicly observed. It seemed proper, therefore, 
upon the quarter-millennial of her existence, to celebrate the 
city's beginning, and, without singling out for especial em- 
pliasis her Revolutionary renown, to make a retrospect of her 
entire career. The first publicly to call attention to the 
desirability of improving the opportunity thus presented was 
Alderman Moses G. Howe. As early as June 2, 1880, he in- 
troduced the subject to the Board of Aldermen,^ and advocated 
some form of celebration. His suggestions were approved by 
the other members of the Board, and the same evening an 
order was adopted for the ajjpointment of a joint special com- 
mittee, consisting of the Mayor, the President of the Common 
Council, two Aldermen, and three Councilmen, to consider 
in what manner the anniversary should be commemorated. 



8 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

The Comniittee was composed of Mayor Hall, Aldermen 
Howe and Chapman, President Walker, and Councilmen 
Holton, Conlan, and Lathrop. At the same meeting of the 
Board, Alderman Howe also presented the following corres- 
pondence between himself and the Rev. Lucius R. Paige, the 
historian of Cambridge. 

Cambridge, May 12, 1880. 
Rev. Lucius R. Paige. 

Dear Sik, — "With the early history of Cambridge you are 
doubtless better acquainted than any other person, and if there 
are in it localities of historic interest which it would be well to 
mark by suitable tablets, you are able to designate them. Other 
places besides Boston have done this, and I believe it an example 
worthy of imitation by Cambridge. If, in your opinion, there are 
such spots, it is possible that, if you will jioint them out, the pres- 
ent city government will favorably consider an effort to thus dis- 
tinguish them before their identity is lost. 

^'cry respectfully yours, 

M. G. HOWE. 



CAMnniDGE, May 17, 1880. 

Dear Sir, — Yours of the 12th is at hand. Li reply I may say 
that among the historic sf)Ots in Cambridge which seem worthy 
of commemoration are the following: — 

1st. A place in Ward 5, on the westerly side of Xorth Avenue, 
a few rods southerly of its junction with Spruce Street, formerly 
occu])ied by Jacob Watson, and not long ago by John Daven|>ort, 
where, on the U)th of April, 1775, four citizens were killed by 
British soldiers returning from Lexington. 

2d. The mansion of Professor Longfellow, on Brattle Street, in 
Ward 1, which was the headquarters of Washington in 177.^. 

.3d. The Washington Elm, at the southwesterly corner of the 
Common (already m.u'ked), where Washington assumed command 
of the American army. 

4th. The spot on the westerly side of Inman Street at the head 
of Austin Street, in Ward 2, where formerly stood the ancient 
house whicli was General Putnam's headquarters. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 9 

5th. The brow of the hill at the junction of Otis and Fourth 
streets, in Ward 3, wliere an important fort was erected during 
tlie siege of Boston. 

Of a different character are some other memorable spots, 
namely : — 

Where the first meeting-house in Cambridge stood, on the west- 
erly side of Dunster Street, a little noith of the point midway be- 
tween Mount Auburn and Winthrop Streets. 

Also where tlie second, third, and fourth meeting-houses stood, 
on the southerly side of Dane Hall (the Law School), fronting on 
Harvard Square. 

The principal founder of Cambridge, in 1G30, was Governor 
Thomas Dudley, who resided on the lot at the northwest corner 
of Dunster and South Streets. He was one of the foremost men 
in the Colony, and more than any other the father of this town at 
the commencement of its settlement in 1631. No memorial of 
liim is jireserved here, even by affixing his name to a street, square, 
or building. A monumental stone might not be inappropriate. 

Half a century later, Thomas Danforth, who was Deputy-Gov- 
ernor from 1679 to 1692, except during the usurpation by Andros, 
WMs in many respects tlie most eminent man who ever resided 
here. (See History of Cambridge, pp. 114, 530.) He was the 
acknowledged leader of the patriotic party up to the revolution of 
1689, in describing wliicli Dr. Palfrey says: "More than any other 
man living in Massachusetts, Thomas Danforth was competent to 
tiie stern occasion." He resided on the northerly side of Kirk- 
Innd Street, near the Scientific School. The exact spot is known. 
No visible memorial of him is now to be found in Cambridge. 

For more than a liundred and sixty years, from 1633 to 1794, a 
spot on Harvard Street was the residence of very eminent men 
and their families, — Rev. Thomas Hooker, Rev. Thomas Shepard, 
and Rev. Jonathan Mitcliell, tlie first, second, and third ministers 
of tlie First Church ; of Hon. John Leverett, a Judge of the Su- 
preme Court and President of Plarvard College, and of Rev. Ed- 
ward Wigglesworth, D.D., and his son of the same name, who 
were successively HoUis Professors of Divinity in Harvard Col- 
lege. Such a spot seems worthy of commemoration. 

Until 1793 there were only two avenues between Cambridge 
and Boston, namely, through Charlestown and through Brookline 
.Tnd Roxbury. West Boston Bridge was commenced in 1792, and 



10 INTRODUCTOHY NOTE. 

completed in the next year, with a causeway extending from its 
westerly end to the junction of Main and Front Streets, in Ward 4. 
Here a small public square affords a conspicuous location for a 
stone to commeniorate an event which so materially affected the 
subsequent prosperity of Cambridge and the convenience of its 

inhabitants. 

Respectfully, LUCIUS R. PAIGE. 

M. G. Howe, Esq. 

I venture to add that we are approaching very near to the 
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the day, Dec. 28, 1630, 
when it was decided by the Governor and Assistants to build here 
a town, with the intention that it should become the seat of gov- 
ernment. (See History of Cambridge, p. 6.) Is not that event 

worthy of some public notice? 

L. R. P. 

An order was adopted providing that a committee be ap- 
pointed to consider where in tiie city memorial tablets should 
be placed, and rejwrt the estimated expense of erecting them. 
The matter was taken in cliarge by the same Committee as 
above mentioned. 

September 29, 1880, an order was adopted appropriating 
$1,000 (afterwards increased to $1,300) to defray the expenses 
of a celebration on the 28th of December ; and the same Com- 
mittee as before, with tlie addition of Alderman Gilmore and 
Councilmen Dudley and Durant, were instructed to perfect 
suitable arrangements for the occasion. 

The Committee on Tablets and Index Stones reported, 
recommending that such marks be placed at the following- 
named places : — 

On the land at the corner of Otis and Fourth streets, now 
occupied by the Putnam Schoolhouse, being the site where 
Fort Putnam was erected, a tabltet. 

In Ward .5, on the westerly side of North Avenue, a few 
rods southerly of its junction with Spruce Street, where, on 
the 19th of April, 1775, four citizens were killed by Hritish 
soldiers retreating from Lexington, an index stone. An index 
stone at the house of Professor Longfellow, on Brattle Street, 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 11 

which was the headquarters of Washington in 1775. An in- 
dex stone at a spot on the westerly side of Innian Street, at 
the head of Austin Street, formerly the site of Putnam's head- 
quarters. An index stone on land on the northerly side of 
Kirkland Street, where formerly stood the residence of Thomas 
Danforth, Deputy-Governor, and Commissioner of the United 
Colonies at every session from 1662 to 1678. An index 
stone at the northwest corner of Dunster Street, where 
stood the residence of Thomas Dudley, one of the founders 
of Cambridge. An index stone where the first meeting-house 
stood, on the westerly side of Dunster Street. 

The report was accepted, and the recommendations were 
soon afterwards carried into effect.' 

The Joint Special Committee on the Celebration was or- 
ganized as follows : — 

THE COMMITTEES. 



School Exercises. 

Alderman Henisy H. Gilmore, 

Councilmen John Conlan, Fred. H. Holton. 

Literary Exercises. 

Alderman Moses G. Howe, 

Councilmen Sanford II. Dudley, William B. Durant. 

Jianquet. 

Alderman Francis L. Chapman, 

President Charles AValker, Councilman William L. Lathrop. 

Co-operative Committee of the School Board. 
Sumner Albek, William H. Orcutt, George A. Coburn, 
William Fox Richardson, Horace E. Scudder. 

The several committees entered zealouslj' upon the perform- 
ance of their duties, and, as the results proved, employed the 
means at their disposal with thoughtful and discriminating 
care. 

' An article giving a brief description of these tablets and the subjects 
which they commemorate will be found on page 131 of this volume. 



12 INTKODUCTOKY NOTE. 

Invitations to attend the celebration were sent as follows : — 

THE INVITED GUESTS. 

Rutherford B. Hayes President of the United States. 

Hon. J.^MEs A. Gaufield .... President-elect " " 

Gen. U. S. Grant New York. 

Hon. William M. Evarts Secretary of State. 

" Charles Devens Attorney-General. 

" George F. Hoar Senator from Massacliusetts. 

" He.nry L. Dawes " " " 

" AViLLiAM Claflin Representative to Congress, 

Eighth (Mas.s.) District. 
" John W. Caxdler . Representative-elect, Eighth (Mass.) Dist. 

His Excellency Jon.x D. Long .... Governor of JIassachusetts. 

The Governor's Staff 

Hon. Horace Gray . Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mass. 

President Charles W. Eliot and Fellows of Harvard College. 

Prof. Henry W. Longfellow Cambridge. 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Boston. 

Hon. E. S. Tobey Postmaster of 

" A. AV. Beard Collector of the Port of " 

" George P. Sanger . . . . U. S. District Attorney, " 

" N. P. Banks U. S. Marshal, Boston. 

" Robert C. AVinthroi- Brookline. 

Ralph AValdo Emerson Concord. 

John G. AVhittier Amesbury. 

B.ibRNST.iERNE B.joRXSON Bergen, Norway. 

Hon. iAlARSHALL P. AViLDEK Doicliester. 

Dr. AVilliam Everett Quincy. 

A. F. Randolph Fredericton, N. B. 

Hon. J. Steadman " " 

Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D Cambridge. 

" A. P. Pf.abody, D.D " 

" Lucius R. Paige, D.D " 

" AVilliam Newell, D.D " 



IXTUODUCTORY NOTE. 13 

Col. T. W. HiGGiNSON Cambridge. 

Ex-Mayor J.\.mes D. Gueen " 

" Cu.M(LES TlIEODOKE RuSSELL " 

" George C. Richardson " 

" J. Warren Merrill " 

" Ezra Parmenter " 

" Charles H. Saunders " 

" H. O. Houghton " 

" Hamlin R. Harding " 

Isaac Bradford Exeter, N. H. 

" Frank A. Allen Cambridge. 

" Samuel L. Montague " 

Mayor-elect James A. Fox " 

John S. Ladd, Esq Justice of Police Com-t, " 

The Mejibeks of the City Council, and Heads of Departments. 

Hon. F. C. Latrobe Mayor of Baltimore, Md. 

" Frederick O. Prince " Boston. 

" George P. Sanderson " Lynn. 

" R. M. PuLsiFER " Newton. 

" Eli Cully " Fitchburg. 

" F. T. Gueeniialge " Lowell. 

" George A. Bruce " Somerville. 

" Charles F. Johnson " Taunton. 

" Charles S. Siiapleigii " Haverhill. 

" Lewis J. Powers " Springfield. 

" F. II. Kelly " Worcester. 

" William S. Green " Fall River. 

" W. T. SouLE " New Bedford. 

" A. J. Bacon " Chelsea. 

" J. J. Currier " Newburyport. 

■' J. R. Simpson " Lawrence. 

" Henry K. Oliver " Salem. 

The Chairmen of the Selectmen of Arlington, Belmont, Wa- 
tertown, and Waltham. 



THE CELEBRATION. 



THE hour of sunrise of the anniversary clay was heralded 
by the ringing of the church bells, and by a salute of 
one hundred guns on the Common. Fortunately the sun it- 
self ushered in the morning, its rays gilding the spires through 
the city, and giving promise of a bright and clear day. Later 
the clouds gathered and allowed only occasional glimpses of 
the sunlight, but the temperature was mild, and altogether the 
day was favorable to a successful celebration. Coming in 
midwinter, the anniversary naturally did not occasion any 
street display, or extended decorations by the citizens. The 
City Hall, however, bore marks of the decorator's skill, and 
its usually plain appearance was lost in a tasteful holiday 
attire. The flags of all nations wei-e streaming from two 
lines diverging from the summit of a flag-pole at the centre 
of the roof to the sidewalk, while the national colors were 
folded gracefully around the city's shield over the entrance to 
the building. Red, white, and blue were festooned from the 
windows, and the figures "16.30" and "1880" were in gold 
on either side of the door. The intelligent attention paid 
by the large numbers who witnessed the proceedings through 
the day showed that the people did not fail to catch the 
spirit of the occasion, and to appreciate the significance of its 
teachings. 

The celebration comprised three separate entertainments, — 
a festival for the children in the Sanders Theatre in the 
morning, an oration at the same place in the afternoon, and 



16 THE CELEBRATION. 

a banquet at Union Hall in the evening. Of these, perhaps 
the first was the most inspiring for the moment, and tiie most 
memorable in its associations. In the centre of the group of 
dignitaries upon the platform were the poets Holmes and 
Longfellow, and bent upon them was the eager gnze of a 
thousand happy school-children gathered in the auditorium. 
In front of its owner stood the arm-chair made from the wood 
of the " spreading chestnut-tree," ^ which was pi-esented to Mr. 
Longfellow by these very scholars less than two vears before ; 
and his poem " From my Arm-chair," written to thank them 
for their gift, was one of the selections read by IMr. Riddle. 
The climax of the scene was when Mr. Longfellow, quite 
' unexpectedly to all, rose and made a shoi't extempore address. 
He was greeted with a ti"emendous burst of applause, and 
when he had finished, the sea of youthful faces was uproar- 
ious with delight. 

The audience that gathered in the afternoon were well re- 
warded by the orator's vivid " retrospect of the half-hidden 
past," presented with his accustomed dignity and scholarly 
grace ; and all who came from Union Hall at the close of the 
festivities testified that the banquet was a fitting end for the 
celebration. 

The Mayor won applause from all for the ability, dignity, 
and grace with which he performed his part in the proceed- 
ings ; and the Committee of Arrangements were deservedly 
congratulated, because notiiing occurred to mar tlie harmony 
and enjoyment attending the exercises of the entire day. 

' This tree, desciilicd by the poet in "The Villafie Blacksmith," 
was on the west side of Brattle Street, opposite Farwell Place, and re- 
mained standing till May, 1870, when it was cut down in order to widen 
the street. The wood in the chair was finished in imitation of ebony. A 
brass plate below the cushion bears these words: " To the anthor of the 
Villatje Blacksmith this chair, made from the wood of the spreading 
chestnut tree, is presented as an expression of grateful regard and ven- 
eration by the children of Cambridge: who with their friends join in best 
wishes and congratulations ou this anniversary, February 27, 1879." 



THE MORNING EXERCISES 



SANDERS THEATRE. 



THE MORNING EXERCISES 



SANDERS THEATRE. 



T ONG before half-past ten o'clock, tbe hour for the ex- 
-*— ' ercises to begin, the vestibule of Memorial Hall re- 
sounded with merry youthful voices, and when that hour had 
arrived, twelve hundred children from the public schools filled 
the lower part of the theatre. The Webster School occupied 
the centre of the balcony, with the Putnam and Thorndike 
Schools and the AUston and Shepard Schools seated on either 
side. The orchestra, as the position of honor, was assigned 
to the Harvard and Washington Schools, as the masters, A. 
B. Magoun and Daniel Mansfield, were the teachers longest 
in the city's service. ^ At one end of the stage was seated a 
choir of one hundred and fifty voices, selected from the older 
members of the Grammar Schools ; and the centre was occu- 
pied by the Mayor, the members of the city government, the 
heads of departments, Francis Cogswell, Superintendent of 
Schools, the school committee, and the following invited 
guests: President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard College, Hon. 
John W. Candler, Hon. A. W. Beard, Professor Henry W. 
I.ongfellow, the Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody, the Rev. Dr. Alex- 
ander McKenzie, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Col. T. W. 
Higginson, and others. The gallery, and every available 
place for general spectators, was completely filled. 

' Forty-three and thirty-nine years, respectively. 



20 THE MOKNIXG EXERCISES 

The exercises were in the following order : — 

PROGIIAMME. 

March • Orchestra. 

Prayer The Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D. 

Singing The CiiiLnnEX. 

Address ^Mayor James M. AV. II am.. 

Music ORCIIESTIiA. 

Address President Charles W. Eliot. 

Singing The Childre.v. 

Address Prof. TIexry W. Longfellow. 

Reading — " From my Arm-chair " .... Mr. George Riddle. 

Poem Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Singing The Children. 

Reading— " The Cataract of Lodore" . . . Mr. George Riddle. 
SiiiTing The Children. 

The instrumental music was by the Orchestra of the Dana 
Council, Legion of Honor, twenty-five performers, under the 
leadership of Mr. William E. Thomas, and was a fitting coun- 
terpart to tiie charming effect produced by the spirited songs 
of the chorus, which had been under the skilful training of 
Mr. N. Lincoln, the teacher of music in the public schools. 
The instrumental pieces comprised the " Boccaccio March," 
by Franz von Suppe : Galop, " Shooting Star," by R. Bial ; 
Overture, " Aurora," by Schlepgerill ; Galop, " Polo," by 
Catlin ; and the vocal selections were " Farewell to the 
Forest," Mendelssohn ; Choral, " Wondrous King of Heaven," 
by Dr. Marx ; " Song of Titania's Fairies," Mozart ; " God and 
King," partly from Costa; "Guardian Genius of tlie Swiss," 
Tobler; "O'er the waters gliding," Mozart; and "Swiftly 
we fly," Lincoln. The accompaniments were played by Dr. 
J. ^L Keniston. 



AT THE SANDEKS THEATRE. 21 



PRAYER BY THE REY. DR. A. P. PEABODY, D.D. 

Our Father who art in heaven, God of our flithers 
and our guide, helper, unfailing friend, we look to 
thee with humble and heartfelt gratitude in memory of 
thy loving providence for us, and for those whose honor 
is precious in our memory, and has been so in thy 
sight. We thank thee for those who laid the founda- 
tions of our republic ; for those who came hither to 
worship thee in freedom, to seek thy counsel and trust 
in thy guidance. We thank thee for the precious 
names that have come down from our early history ; 
for the great men in Church and State, whose virtues 
and services we to-day commemorate. We thank thee 
for their consecration to Christ and his Church. We 
thank thee for the sacred influences that flowed from 
that consecration and from their whole lives, in all that 
they did for their own day and generation, and in all that 
they did for those who succeeded them. We thank thee, 
Father, that here- have ever been cherished the in- 
terests of wisdom and of learning ; that here the young 
have ever been held as w^orthy of sacred regard, of 
fiiithful training, and of the deepest concern of every 
heart. We thank thee for these children ; for all in 
them of rich and glad promise ; for all that from week 
to week in their progress, in their learning, and in their 
knowledge, gives us the hope that they will well fill 
the places of their fiithers, the places of us who must 
soon pass away. Father, command upon them thy rich 
blessing. May they be trained in the knowledge, not 



11 THE MORNING EXERCISES 

only of things human, but of things that are divine. 
Ma^- they be brought up in the nurture and admoni- 
tion of the Lord. May thine early benediction rest upon 
them, and follow them in all their ways of life, and as 
they are united here in songs of praise and thank.sgiv- 
ing, may they be united around thy throne in heaven to 
render thee thanks for all thy goodness while they were 
here on earth. Command th}^ rich blessing on them, 
and may they feel the power of divine truth, the power 
of the Saviour's love, the power of the world to come. 
May the teachers, in their whole spirit, in their entire 
example, shed a benign influence upon the young and 
bring blessings to those under their charge, and may 
the record of their fidelity be in heaven and its witness 
on high. Let thy love be with us now in all that we 
say and do, in all that we think and feel, in this season 
of sacred commemoration ; and grant that the blessings 
bestowed upon our fathers may rest upon us and upon 
our children from generation to generation. We offer 
our prayer in that name which is above every name, 
and through Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, to thee, 
Lord, our God, be all honor, and praise, and glory, and 
gratitude, forever. Amen. 



OPENING ADDRESS BY MAYOU HALL. 

It gives me great pleasure, in behalf of the city of 
Cambridge, to welcome our guests on this anniversary, 
and congratulate our citizens on the results of these 
two hundred and fifty years, as well as on the prospects 
spread out before us. It is an added gratification to 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 23 

receive and extend the welcome within the walls of 
this beautiful edifice, erected to commemorate the 
heroic devotion of those who died to preserve unbroken 
the Union our fathers established ; erected to tell this 
and future generations that the republic we received 
and transmit must remain forever one and inseparable. 

It is especially fitting that we meet here to-daj-, hav- 
ing for our host an institution which, since the begin- 
ning of its history, has been so largely identified with 
the civil, intellectual, and religious welfare of our 
land. It is always interesting and instructive to see 
two old people together. We shall certainly antici- 
pate much in seeing Cambridge, two hundred and fifty 
years old, and Harvard College, two hundred and forty- 
two years of age, sitting down for an hour together 
to-day. 

What could more appropriately introduce the day 
we observe than a service by the scholars of our public 
schools, — that institution our fathers established side 
by side with the church ; that which has filled these 
two hundred and fifty years with so much of bless- 
ing and hope, and which shall be one of the sti'ong 
bulwarks of our republic for generations yet to be ? 
Should the time ever come when either the church or 
the public school shall be deemed of little importance, 
we may well write in larger letters on our procla- 
mations, " God save the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts." 

It is a question more often asked, perhaps, than an- 
swered, Why, on such an occasion as this, does so large 
a share of the interest and delight of the day centre in 



24 THE MORXING EXERCISES 

the eliildren's service, more than in the convivial part 
of the day's entertainment? It certainly cannot be 
sentiment ; althongh we feel the reason more than 
we can describe it in words, because it reaches down 
to the very roots of our being, and our deepest feelings 
never can be expressed. There is, or should be, within 
us all a natural desire to be associated with succeeding 
generations, in our thoughts and feelings and j^ur- 
poses, and not to pass from this life having failed to 
impart to them some good impulse, or to live in them 
and in otlier generations through them. And these 
children are the connecting link between our genera- 
tion and those to come. 

It is pleasant and often restful to muse on the past, 
and let memory wander among scenes and with faces 
that have been familiar. It is stimulating to lot imagi- 
nation reach on to future years, and to think and hope 
that wdien our forms shall have vanished from sight 
here, other lives may be so influenced by ours that the 
good we have received from the past Ave may transmit 
to them ; and so each generation shall be the better for 
that which has gone before. 

Fifty years to some of our friends here must .seem, 
in the retrospect, a short period ; but when the next 
semi-centennial comes, probably most of us who have 
reached even adult years will have completed our 
work on earth. But these children shall stand in our 
places, and repeat anew the lessons we learn to-day. 
Hence such an occasion as this seems peculiarly to 
link the past, the present, and the future together. 
May it l)e in a chain w^hose constantly added links 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 25 

shall, SO far as our influence goes, be strengthened 
in its fibre to hold the past and future indissolubly 
together. 

No thoughts of mine, however, can add to the inter- 
est of this occasion so much as that which we have all 
come especially to see and hear. At a later part of 
the day I shall expect to tax your patience by speaking 
more at length. I will merely add, in closing, that we 
trust the children here will be so impressed by this 
occasion, that our two hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary may be to them a beacon that shall ever guide to 
higher purposes and nobler lives. 

The Mayor, in introducing President Eliot, said: "The 
progress made in the last few years by the iiistitutiou in 
Avhich we all take great pride is due largely to the wonderful 
energy and executive ability of its President, — perhaps the 
youngest the College ever had, — whom I now have the 
pleasure of presenting." 

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT. 

We are met to commemorate a beginning, — a be- 
ginning of wdiat has proved to be a vigorous and en- 
during life. Now all beginnings of life greatly interest 
mankind, be it the planting of a tree, or of the seed 
coi'u which brings the great crop of ^utumn, or the 
planting of a town, or the birth of a child or of a na- 
tion. But beginnings are apt to be very small, and I 
want to carry your thoughts for a few minutes back to 
the small beginning of this town. 

It was on a wintry day like this, when a few men 



26 THE MOKNING EXERCISES 

came over from Boston, rowed up Charles River, per- 
haps as the easiest mode of approach, handed on the 
hillock where now is Harvard Square, and decided that 
they would there build a fortified town. There were 
no bridges, no roads then. It is mentioned that there 
was a path which led from Charlestown to Watertowii. 
You can imagine how much travel there was in those 
days along this path, and through the rude streets of 
the new town ; for it was ordered very early in the 
hi.story of Cambridge, that no man should cut down a 
tree and leave it lying across the highway for more 
than seven days. A tree lying acro.ss the higliway for 
a week would interrupt traffic considerably now ; but 
then there was very little to interrupt. 

These people that settled Cambridge were very poor, 
humble, hard-working people. We must not think that 
they foresaw all that we .see ; tha.t it ever entered into 
their minds to conceive what was to grow out of their 
planting, — a pro.sperous town and a new nation. They 
were a farming people; their wealth, such as they had, 
was in their fields, their horse.«!, oxen and cows, hens 
and swine ; and most of the laws and regulations 
passed during the early life of Cambridge related to 
the care and tending of these sources of their support. 
When Cambridge was fifty 3'ears old, the Rev. John 
Rogers, the minister of Ipswich, was elected President 
of Harvard College. The minister was the most con- 
siderable man in a New England town at that day ; and 
the President of Harvard College was one of the most 
considerable men in the Colony. Now tradition tells 
us that when the Rev. John Rogers came from Ip.swich 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 27 

to establish himself in Cambridge as the President of 
Harvard College, he walked all the way, and drove his 
cow before him. That was a pei'fectly natural method, 
and a simple necessity in those times. I wonder if many 
of you children live in a house that is not plastered, 
and not more than half finished in any respect. Well, 
Benjamin Wadsworth, who was President of the College 
so lately as 1737, was obliged to move into the old 
house which now stands in Hai'vard Square (the Wads- 
worth House, as it is now called) before it was plas- 
tered, — before it was more than half finished. That is 
the way they had to live in those times. We must not 
think of this people as great and prosperous : they 
Avere poor, resolute, industrious, hard-working people, 
who had a great trust in God. Thus for two hundred 
years this small farming population held Cambridge 
together, and prepared it for the richer and more 
numerous generations that were to follow. And now 
we see it a populous, rich, and prosperous place ; and 
we have come into possession of it by inheritance, as 
it were, though probably there are very, very few 
children or grown people in this room who can trace 
their descent in any degree, however remote, to the 
original inhabitants of the place, or even to the fami- 
lies that settled here in the first fifty years. 

Most of us have come hither from other towns, and 
many from other countries. What have we come to ? We 
have come to a famous town, to an historic town, and, 
what is more, to a town which is perfectly sure to be 
dear to English-speaking people for generations to 
come. I suppose most people would say that Cam- 



28 THE MOKXIXG EXERCISES 

bridge ^vas chiefly famous, first, for the very early 
establishment within its borders of a seat of liberal 
learning, — a seat of learning where have been trained, 
generation after generation, pious ministers, learned 
scholars, great statesmen, and brave soldiers ; secondly', 
that it was famous because here the first national army 
was gathered, and here the greatest of Americans first 
took conmiand of that army. That act of Washington 
under the old elm was an act of surpassing courage and 
of immeasurable effect. Be sure, children, that you 
go and stand under the tree, so that each of you may 
be able to tell your children's children that when you 
were a child you stood beneath the very tree •which 
sheltered Washington from the July sun when he drew 
his t^word and took command of the little army paraded 
before him on the sandy Common. 

I said that Cauibridge was sure to be famous and 
dear to men's hearts for many generations yet to come. 
Why is this so sure ? History teaches that the men 
whose influence is deepest, whose works and deeds and 
lives are of dearest memory, are poets. Every week, 
in yonder Sever Hall, hundreds of young Americans 
come together to listen with delight to the works of 
poets who lived thousands of years ago. And so, in 
generations to come, the works of Cambridge poets will 
be familiar and dear to millions of our descendants. I 
hope, children, you all know the three houses in Cam- 
bridge where these Cambridge poets have lived. 1 am 
sure you know the house where Washington once lived, 
wb.ere Mr. Longfellow now lives, on Brattle Street. Go 
and see the house on Kiniwood Avenue, where Mr. 



AT THE SANDERS THEATKE. 29 

Lowell lives; and go and see, too, the house behind 
the new Gymnasium, where Dr. Holmes was born. 
These houses ax'e of wood ; they must disappear. Be 
sure that you will be able to tell your grandchildren 
nothing which will so interest them as that you knew 
the houses where Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell lived 
when you were children ; and, more than that, tell them 
that you saw two of those poets — Longfellow and 
Holmes — sitting beside each other on the stage in 
Sanders Theatre, when they were more than seventy 
years old, in the year when Lowell was the Minister 
of the United States in England, — the year when we 
celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
the foundation of Cambridge. 

Governor LoXG, who was expected to address the chikb'en 
at this point in the exercises, liad sent word that he could not 
attend until afternoon. In announcing this fact the Mayor 
said that what would be lost in one way would be gained in 
.another ; for, though he had expected that all would have to 
content themselves with the golden speech of one poet and the 
golden silence of another, he had just persuaded Mr. Long- 
fellow to say a few words in place of the Governor, and 
hence that silence would most agreeably be broken. 

REMARKS BY HENRY W. LOXGFELLOAV. 

My Dear Young Friends, — I do nqt rise to make 
an address to you, l)ut to excuse myself from making- 
one. I know the proverb says that he who excuses 
himself accuses himself, — and I am Avilling on this oc- 
casion to accuse myself, for I feel very much as I 
suppose some of you do when you are suddenly called 



30 THE MORNING EXERCISES 

upon in your class-room, and are obliged to say that 
you are not prepared. I am glad to see your faces and 
to hear your voices. I am glad to have this oppor- 
tunity of thanking you in prose, as I have already done 
in verse, for the beautiful present you made me some 
two years ago. Perhaps some of you have forgotten 
it. but I have not ; and I am afraid, — yes, 1 am afraid 
that fifty years hence, when you celebrate the three 
hundredth anniversary of this occasion, this day and all 
that belongs to it will have passed from your memory : 
for an English philosopher has said that the ideas as 
well as children of our youth often die before us, and 
our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are 
approaching, where, though the brass and marble re- 
main, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the 
imagery moulders away. 

" It needs no word of initu'," said tlie Maj'or, "on sucli an 
occasion us this, to reniinJ the childfen of the great pleasiu'e 
they took in presenting this chair to our dear friend who is 
wltli us to-day ; and I am sure we sliall be glad to listen to the 
reading, by ]\Ir. Riddlk, of the words Professor Longfellow 
wrote to the children in response to their gift." 

FROM MY ARM-CIIAIK. 

Am I a king, that I shouM call my own 

This splendid ebon throne? 
Or by wh;it reason, or what right' divine, 

Can I proclaim it mine? 

Only, |)erli:i|)s, l)y right divine of song 

It may to me belong ; 
Only because tiie spreading chestnut-tree 

Of old was sung by me. 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 31 

Well I remember it in all its prime, 

When in the summer-time 
The affluent folinge of its branches made 

A cavern of cool shade. 

There by the blacksniiih's forge, beside the street, 

It.s blossoms while and sweet 
Enticed the bees, until it seemed alive. 

And murmured like a hive. 

And when the winds of autumn, with a shout, 

Tossed its great arms about, 
The shining chestnuts, bursting from the sheath, 

Dropjied to the ground beneath. 

And now some fragments of its branches bare. 

Shaped as a stately chair, 
Have by my hearthstone found a home at last, 

And whisper of the Past. 

TheT^anish king could not in all his pride 

Repel the ocean tide ; 
But, seated in this chair, I can in rhvme 

Roll back the tide of Time. 

I see again, ns one in vision sees. 

The blossoms and the bees. 
And liear the children's voices shout and call. 

And the brown chestnuts fall. 

I see the smithy with its fires aglow, 

I hear the bellows blow. 
And the shrill hammers on the anvil beat) 

The iron white with heat ! 

And thus, dear children, have ye made for me 

This day a jubilee, 
And to my more than threescore years and ten 

Brought back my youth again. 



• 2 THE MOi:XING EXEKCISES 

The hoavl hath its own nuMuo, y, like the uiina, 

Au.l in it are enslirinea 
The precious keepsakes, into ^vhicl■. is wrouglit 

The giver's hiving thought. 

Only your love an.l your remembrance couhl 

Give life to this dead wood, 
And make these branches, leafless now so long. 

Blossom again in song. 

influence are not confined to their own age oi 1. nd, since 
th i Ihie is cone out through- all the earth and the.r word to 
, ^f l.e world ' It gives me great pleasttre, therefore, 

r•;;:l:^^;^one^ho needs no title, -OUVE. 

''Xu.^^Siltic applause which greeted him had sub- 
aided, Dt- HoLllES spoke as follo«» : — 

roEll I!Y OLIVEU WENliEI.I. HOLMES. 

1 .m a,mom.ce<l for a,, addrcs., and 1 hav» nothing 
„„ poe„,. One wo.d of explanation. in.o n,™u 
1 refer to in the,e lines .as a very real one In 1 c 
, V of my early manhood, as I stood on the top of .he 
t ,i,°' touer of Pisa, having been long "»sent from 
o™°and thinking of it very fondly and very long- 
iX I looked toward the port of Leghorn, t.ve e 
nls'off, and saw in the distance the .nast and the 
™ of :; Ameriean frigate. T see some J-mg pn nl- 
rfore me .1,0 possibly might not know, nnless toU 
then,, that Llvo.no is the It.aU.an name of the e.ty we 
call Leghorn. 




OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 



AT TUE SANDEES TliKATRE. 33 



HOME. 



Your home was mine — kind Nature's gift; 

My love no years can chill ; 
In vain their flakes the storm winds sii't; 
The snow<lrop hides beneath the drift, 

A living blossom still. 

Mute are a hundred long-famed lyres, 
Hushed all their golden strings ; 

One lay the coldest bosom fires, 

One song, one only, never tires 
While sweet-voiced Memory sings. 

No spot so lone but echo knows 

That dear, familiar strain ; 
In tropic isles, on arctic snows, 
Thiough burning lij)s its music flows 

And rings its fond refrain. 



From Pisa's tower my straining sight 

Roamed wandering leagues away, 
When lo ! a frigate's banner bright. 
The starry blue, the red, the white, 
In far Livorno's bay. 

Hot leaps the life-blood from my heart. 

Forth springs the sudden tear ; 
The ship that rocks by yonder mart 
Is of my land, my life, a part — 
Home, home, sweet home, is here ! 

Fades from my view the sunlit scene, — 
My vision spans the waves ; 
3 



34 THE MOKNING EXERCISES 

I see the elm-encircleil green, 
Tlje tower — the steejile — and between, 
Tlie field of ancient graves. 

Tliere runs tlie path my feet would tread 

When first they learned to stray ; 
There stands the ganibrel roof that spread 
Its quaint old angles o'er my head 
When first I saw the day. 

Tiie sounds that met niy boyish ear 

My inward sense salute, — 
The wood-notes wild I loved to hear, — 
The robin's challenge, sharp and clear, — 

The breath of evening's ttute. 

The faces loved from cradle days, — 

Unseen, alas, how long ! 
As fond remembrance i-ound them plays. 
Touched with its softening moonlight rays, 

Through fancy's portal throng. 

And see! as if the opening skies 
Some angel form had spared 
Us wingless mortals to surprise. 
The little maid with light-blue eyes, 
White-necked and siolden-haired I 



So rose the picture full in view 

I paint in feebler song ; 
Such power the seamless banner knew 
Of red and white and starry blue 

For e.xiles baiiislicd long. 

O boys, dear boys, who wait as men 
To guard its heaven-bright folds. 
Blest are the eyes that see again 
That banner, seamless now, as then — 
The fairest earth behol.ls! 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 35 

Sweet was the Tuscan air and soft 

In that unfading hour, 
And fancy leads ray footsteps oft 
Up the round galleries, high aloft 

On Pisa's threatening tower. 

And still in Memory's holiest shrine 

I read with pride and joy 
" For me those stars of empire shine ; 
That empire's dearest home is mine ; 

I am a Cambridge boy ! " 



THE AFTERNOON EXERCISES 



SANDERS THEATRE. 



THE AFTERNOON EXERCISES 



SANDERS THEATRE. 



T 



HE exercises in the afternoon, beginning at half past 
one o'clock, wei'e as follows : — 

PROGRAMME. 

ftlusit.i 
OvERTUUE. " Bohemian Girl " Balfe. 

53rasEr 
By the Rev. William Newell, D.D. 

iSlusic. 
Gavotte. " Blumlein, Vergissmeinnicht." Op. 270 . . . Giese. 

©ration 
By Thomas Wentwouth Higginson. 

fflusic. 
Selection from " La Vestale " Mercadante. 

On the stage sat the Mayor, the members of the City Gov- 
ernment, Governor John D. Long and Staff, the Rev. Dr. 
A. P. Peabody, the Rev. Dr. Alexander McKenzie, the Rev. 
Dr. William Newell, Ex-Governor William Claflin, the Hon. 
A. W. Beard, and other invited guests. 

' Dana Council Orchestra. 



40 TIIK AFTEllNOOX EXERCISES 



PRAYER BY THE REV. WILLIAM NEWELL, D.D. 

God, the ever-living God, the God of all gene- 
rations, our God and the God of our fathers, we 
would join with their glorified spirits on this day of 
commemoration in prayer and in praise unto thee. 
As we look back to our city's winter birthday', and think 
of the contrast between the naked, houseless land- 
scape before them and the scenes that now meet our 
eyes, our hearts would rise unto thee in gratitude and 
in trust ; and as we look farther back to the dear Eng- 
lish homes which they left with tears, we would thank 
thee for that stirring of their spirits under the impulse 
of their earnest faith, and their zeal for a purified re- 
ligion, and their longing for a true Christian com- 
monwealth, that moved them to seek in another land 
the opportunities denied theni in their own. Grate- 
fully would we acknowledge the favoring Providence 
that bore them, as with a mighty hand and out- 
stretched arm, through the waves and winds of the 
stormy ocean to their new home in the wilderness, for 
which thou didst prepare their way, and through them 
didst make the wilderness blossom like the rose, and 
prospered their labors, and multiplied their numbers 
till " the little one became a thousand and the small 
one a strong nation." And, God, never can we 
cease to thank tliec for the rich inheritance they 
have left us in their principles, their examples, their 
institutions ; for their wise and watcliful care of the 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 41 

great interests of religion and good morals, of edu- 
cation and civil freedom ; and for all the manifold 
privileges which we now enjoy through their labors 
and sacrifices, so bravely undertaken, so resolutely and 
steadfastly met. And we give praise unto thee for 
the gifted, energetic, true-hearted men who have been 
raised up from generation to generation to carry on 
the work which our fathers began ; for thy servants 
in Church and in State, who became the lights and 
leaders and benefactors of their country, its pilots in 
the sunshine and the storm, — the chosen instruments 
of thy holy and gracious will to mould and quicken 
the sentiment of the people, and to build up the 
nation. 

And especially at this time and on this occasion 
would we rejoice in the remembrance of those who in 
our own city did their part in their sphere for the same 
great ends ; and for those who, under the tuition of 
our honored University, in former and in present times, 
have been here prepared for a career of usefulness 
and honor. We praise thy holy name that thou didst 
put it into the hearts of our fathers to lay in the new 
town the foundations of this noble seminary of learning, 
the pride and hope of our Commonwealth, ever keep- 
ing pace with the progress of the country and the age, 
ever the efficient helper and ennobling influence in 
the growth of all that makes the true greatness of our 
country. 

And now^ may the Lord God be with us as with our 
fiithers. Oh, ble.ss and prosper and elevate to higher 
issues the people of this city, of this Commonwealth, 



42 THE AFTERXOON EXEHCISES 

and of this nation. God, forgive the sins and errors, 
the abuses and corruptions of the past ; and lead us in 
the way of truth, of righteousness, of justice, of Chris- 
tian love, which alone is the way of honor and safety 
for the nation as well as for the man. And we beseech 
ihee to inspire with true wisdom, with pure patriot- 
ism, with worthy, noble, and comprehensive aims, the 
President and the Congress of the United States, 
the Governor and Legislature of this Commonwealth, 
the magistrates and officers of this city, and all who in 
truly serving their country are serving thee. And, 
God, may thy providence guard and preserve the pre- 
cious institutions which lie at the basis of our country's 
welfare and our country's honor ; and may fliy Holy 
Spirit, working through the gcpel of Christ and the 
nobler sentiments of men, carry us onward and upward 
to a higher plane of human progress and of Christian 
civilization. And in all the changes and reverses that 
may come upon this country, as they have come sooner 
or later upon every nation in the ages that are past, 
may thy overruling love bring forth from the seem- 
ing and temporary evil a lasting good. May thy 
Avord go forth conquering and to conquer. May the 
truth as it is in Jesus, the power of the spirit of Christ, 
triumph, as thou, to whom a thousand j'ears are but as 
one day, seest that it will triumph, battling with the 
ever-changing forms of error, superstition, and sin, 
slowly raising, purifying, civilizing, Christianizing the 
nations, till the angels' Christmas song shall be fulfilled, 
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
"•ood-will toward men." 



AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 43 

Father, may thy blessing rest upon the honored 
head of the government of this city, upon his assa- 
ciates in authority and trust, and upon all who shall 
follow them in their places in the years to come. And 
may thy blessing ever rest on the inhabitants of this 
city, — in their homes, in their business dealings, in 
their social relations, in their religious connections, in 
their political and civil interests and obligations. May 
they be faithful to every public trust and private duty, 
and ready for every good work. So shall the place be 
more and more honored and blessed in the years to 
come. 

May thy gracious presence be with us in the com- 
memorative services of this day ; and may all he said 
and done in the spirit of Christ, in the love of God, 
in the love of man, in the love of country, and in the 
love of all that is true and good. 

And so to thy glory and the glory of him who is 
our Lord and Saviour, as he has been the Lord and 
Saviour of the generations that have passed away ; and 
unto thee, his Father and ours, be the praise forever- 
more. Amen. 



ORATION 



THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 



GENTLEME>f OP THE CiTY GOVERNMENT, Mr. MaTOK, Youii 

Excellency, and Fellow-Citizens : — 

Two hundred and fifty years ago the spot where we 
now stand was a part of" that vast forest region which 
then comprised all Eastern Massachusetts. Wolves 
roamed through this forest in packs, bears and lynxes 
abounded, deer were plenty, and sometimes a great 
moose made his way, stealthy and stately, among the 
denser trees. The woods showed that combination of 
varied species which formed then, as now, the nuiin 
difference between the American and European land- 
scapes ; the oaks and pines grew intermingled, and 
there were elms on the meadows and willows by the 
watercourses. Laurels, dogwood, and sas.safras, mostly 
new to the first settlers, filled uj) the underwood ; and 
even at Christmas time the arbutus or mn^ytlower car- 
peted the woods with its creeping vine, and showed, from 
its abundant buds, in mild seasons, the pink edges of 
its petals, — a thing of beauty and hope amid the bare- 
ness of a wiiitrv world. 



OKATIOX BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 45 

To a forest spot such as I have described, at a point 
not very far from this, a joarty came through the woods, 
two hundred and fifty years ago to-day, exploring from 
the httle settlement of Watertown, to seek a fit place 
for a fortified town. "After divers meetings," says 
Deputy-Governor Dudle}', " at Boston, Roxburj^, and 
Watertown, on the 28th of December, we grew to this 
resolution, to bind all the assistants ... to build houses 
at a place a mile east from Watertown, near Charles 
River, the next spring." And Johnson, in his " Won- 
der-working Providence," says that they came here 
Avishing rather to " enter farther among the Indians 
than hazard the fury of malignant adversaries, who in 
a rage might pursue them," — these pursuers being 
doubtless the French. The mile east from Watertown 
was computed not from the present village of that 
name, but from the early settlement near Mt. Auburn, 
whose site is still marked by the quaint old burial- 
ground, whose stones record' the minister of the parish, 
Mr. Thomas Bailey, as a '• pious and painfull preacher," 
and tell us of his wife Lydia that she "went off sing- 
ing and left us weeping." 

But who are these who have come througli the for- 
est on this late December day of 16.30, and whom we 
mny fancy as resting for their noonday repast beside 
some spring whose traces are still visible; in its heredi- 
tary willow-trees ? There is Governor Winthrop, as we 
see him in Greenough's statue, Avearing ruff and short 
cloak, and showing, in his alert and eager look, how 
lightly he bears his two-and-forty years. He landed 
on this continent only in June, and, whether to dwell 



46 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

in Salem, Charlestovvn, Boston, or Cambridge, he hardly 
knows. Beside him is Deputy-Governor Dudley, twelve 
years older, and showing in his hardy and impetuous 
manner the traces of his youthful military service 
;igainst the Spaniards at Amiens under Henri Quatre. 
He knows full well what he wants, and the project of this 
fortified town is largely of liis planning. With them 
are, perhaps, Endicott, Saltonstall, Bradstreet, and Cod- 
dington, for all these are " assistants " at the time, ^ome 
of them are in peaceful array, others wear steel caps 
and corselets ; and they have with them, most likely, a 
few yeomen, always on the watch, and keeping the 
matches lighted in their firelock muskets. Yet their 
talk is peaceful and prayerful, and tliey give to this 
armed halt in tlie forest something of the flavor of a 
camp-meeting. Some of them doubtless remark on the 
agreeableness of the spot where they are, and indulge 
in quaint pleasantry about it ; one, perhaps, says that 
the dining-hnll is "large, high, curiously hung with 
green ; " another, that it is " accommodated with the 
pleasancy of a murmuring rivulet." They hnve come 
to seek a place for a fort ; tliey are in reality fixing tlie 
site of a city. All the Cambridge of to-day — its fbrt)- 
two thousand people, its $50,000,000 of taxable prop- 
erty, its great University — all this is the remote result 
of that one semi-military picnic in the woods, two 
hundred and fifty years ngo. 

But the inunediate outcome of it is to be a fortified 
village, created after some delays, and under the inex- 
pressive uiuue of Newtown. Even after Winthrop has 
abandoni'd the new settlement, stout Dudlev secures 



ORATIOX BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 47 

an appropriation of sixty pounds to build a " pallysa- 
doe," or stockade, around it. A thousand acres are 
ordered to be thus " impaled " with trees set in the 
ground ; a mile and a half of trees being thus placed, at 
tlie very lowest estimate (that of Wood),' — the stock- 
ade not including the side toward Charles River. 
What a task for the men of this little settlement to fell, 
remove, and plant these thousands of trees, and to dig 
round them a fosse or trench, so well executed that I 
remember parts of it still existing as a ditch in my 
boyhood ! The willows on the football ground of the 
students, at the edge of Oxford Street, are the last 
memorial of that great labor undertaken two centuries 
and a half ago. Let us fancy that something of the 
vigor of Dudley and his followers is reappearing in 
the muscles that now conduct their attack and defence 
on that spot, althougli it be with no heavier ordnance 
than a football. 

Time passes, and the " pallysadoe " keeps the new 
village safe. In 1633 Wood saj-s of the inhabitants, 
that " most of them are very rich, and have great 
store of cattle ; " both which statements would certainly 
savor of exaggeration if made of their descendants. In 
that year Cambridge is found assessed as high as any 
town in the Colony except Dorchester; in 1636 it goes 
beyond all others. The privilege of being liberally 
taxed begins early, and on this point, at least, we are 
true to the traditions of our fathers. 

But there is, we find, a- threatened change in the 
whole condition of NcAvtown ere long. As we look in 

1 Wood's New England Prospect, p. 4o. Holmes's Cambridge, p. 9. 



48 AFTEKXOON EXEllCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

upon its few rectangular streets, and its sixty or seventy 
houses, we see an luiwonted disturbance, one Maj" morn- 
ing. Tliere is a gathering ot a hundred men and women, 
equipped as for travel, in the little market-place now 
called Winthrop Square. The drum which sometimes 
calls them to church is beating; there is a crowd of 
men, and another crowd of cattle, lowing, impatient, 
shaking their horns as if it were Brighton MiU'ket. 
Presently a horse-litter comes slowly pacing through 
the square, bearing a pale lady; other women walk 
beside her, and a clergyman in velvet cloak, worn some- 
what threadbare, comes gravely on. He pauses and 
perhaps offers prayer, the men and women adjust bur- 
dens on their shoulders, the drum beats again, and the 
whole crowd — minister, lady, men, and animals — set 
off slowly along the Watertown road. It is the scene 
described by Winthrop, May 31, 1636, saying: "Mr. 
Hooker, pastor of the church of Newtown, and most of 
his parishioners, went to Connecticut; his wife was 
carried in a horse-litter, and they drove one hundred 
and sixty cattle, and partook of their milk ])v the way." 
It was truly a i)astor with his Hock, and with his herd 
also. Times are altered. In the present frequency of 
ministerial changes, it Avould create a good deal of con- 
fusion in the streets ii" every migrating clergyman took 
with him the greater part of his congregation and one 
hundred and sixty head of cattle. 

But there .seems a visible interference of Pi-ovidenoe 
to protect the new-born town. As the Rev. Mr. Hooker 
goes, tlie Rev. Mr. Shepard conies, " the holy, heav- 
enly, sweet-affecting, and soul-ravishing Mr. Shepard." 



ORATIOX BY COLOXEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 49 

He comes Avith other settlers, and makes this memoran- 
dum : " Myself, and those that came with me, found 
many houses empty, and persons willing to sell." He 
takes Mr. Hooker's house, he takes his parish, he 
llually takes his daughter for a wife; never was there 
a transfer so convenient. If Dudlej- is the civil and 
military founder of the town, then is Shepard its sjoir- 
itual founder. In the next year, 1637, we see him 
opening with jjrayer the famous synod here held to 
pronounce against '• antinoraian and familistic opin- 
ions," of v.-hich synod he is the leading spirit. "A 
poore, weake, pale-complectioned man," as he is de- 
scribed by contemporaries, and now but about thirty 
years old, he yet j^ours forth such power that the 
s3"nod, under his guidance, condemns " about eighty 
opinions, some blasphemous, others erroneous, all un- 
safe," sa3"s even the tolerant Winthrop. What is cer- 
tain is that by this bold leadership and by his various 
virtues Mr. Shepard so wins the confidence of the Col- 
ony, that, when the plan for establishing a college is 
formed. Cotton Mather tells us, " Cambridge, rather 
than any other place, was pitched upon to be the seat of 
that hnppy seminary." Surely it is gathering grapes of 
thorns and figs of thistles to extract one happy seminary 
out of eighty pestilent heresies ; but we find it done. 

It was a glorious thing in that little colony, which 
could only raise £60 to defend itself from savages, to 
appropriate £400 to protect itself from ignorance.' 

1 "It is questionable whether a more honorable specimen of public 
spirit can be found in the history of mankind." — Dwight's Travels in 
New England (1821), i. iSl. 

4 



50 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

Shepard, in securing for this town a college, did more 
for it than Dudley, who secured for it a " pallysadoe." 
And the College also brought with it the name, so that 
Newtown was soon changed (May, 1638) to Cambridge, 
in memory of the English Cambridge, where so many 
of tlie Puritan clergy had been reared. Henceforth it 
was, through its whole career, a college town. I do 
not know whether to find this illustrated in the fact that, 
during the very year after the institution was opened, 
the town had to pay a fine of ten shillings for not keep- 
ing its stocks and watch-house in working order. It is 
observable, also, that the first President, D mister, gave 
his hearty approval of an alehouse kept Ijy one whom 
he calls "Sister Bradish," on the ground that she sold 
such "comfortable pennyworths" to the students; and 
that it was afterwards found needful to have a college 
brewery, situated near Stoughton and Hollis Halls, 
which brewed ale expressly for tlie students till about 
the time of the Revolution, and made " Sister Bradish" 
and her pennj'worths superfhious. At any rate, so 
great was the importance of the College as a feature 
in the new settlement, tliat Mr. Paige has unearthed, 
among the manuscripts of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, a memorandum dated Sept. 30, 1783, to the 
effect that in tiie early days the per.sons appointed 
to lay out roads into the interior did it so far as the 
bank by Mrs. Biglow's in Weston, and that this was as 
far as would ever be necessary, it being about seven 
miles from the College in Cambridge.^ 

' Paige's Cambridge, p. 126. 



ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. IIIGGIXSON. 51 

Yet we must regard Cambridge not alone as the seat 
of the College, but as being for a time the seat of the 
colonial government. Not only do we find the courts 
held here, but the very elections, — men from the 
farthest extremes of the Colony sending their votes or 
" proxies " hither, or coming in person. Let us look 
in upon the exciting contest of 1637, Avhere Vane and 
Winthrop are arrayed against each other. The Colo- 
nists are assembled on the afternoon of Maj- 17, in a 
fashion borrowed from the parliamentary elections in 
England, beneath an oak-tree on the northerly side of 
Cambridge Couunon. It is a celebrated tiee, which has 
got its full growth, though the Washington Elm is still 
but a sapling. There is much excitement, and some of 
the voters are ready to lay violent hands upon each 
other, — the party of Vane wishing to postpone the 
choice of officers, that of Winthrop desiring to proceed 
to it at once. At last there is a stir in the crowd, and 
against the trunk of the great oak-tree there rises, with 
struggling and clambering, the form of the Rev. John 
Wilson, the first minister of Boston. He is now forty- 
nine years old, and, being stout in person, has given his 
hat to one parishioner, his Geneva cloak to another, 
and climbs with bands somewhat dishevelled and face a 
good deal fluslied. Clinging with one hand, probably^ 
and gesticulating with the other, he harangues the peo- 
ple, bids them look to their charter and they will find 
that they have come here to elect officers and nothing- 
else. His voice is echoed by a general cry of" Elec- 
tion, election, election ! " The choice is made at once, 
and Winthrop supersedes Vane, the last year's governor, 



52 AFTEKNOON KXEItCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

all in consequence of this more than stump speech, with 
a whole oak-tree for a pedestal.^ 

In 16-51 we find the town extended to its greatest 
size, — long and thin, as becomes an oveigrown youth, 
— measuring eighteen miles in length, and only a mile 
in width. It is shaped like a pair of compasses, one 
leg extending through the region now known as Arling- 
ton, Lexington, Bedford, and Billerica, and the other 
shorter limb through Brighton and Newton, the present 
Cambridge representing only the head. All that later 
becomes Cambridgeport and East Cambridge is a region 
of meadow and salt marsh called the Neck, intersected 
by natural canals ; having no roads, with no means of 
access to Boston except by boat, and visited from Cam- 
bridge only for purposes of fishing and hunting.^ It 
may fill us with admiration for the courage and j)atient 
toil of our ancestors when wo perceive how the succes- 
sive parts of the overgrown Cambridge of 1G51 are 
lopped away, and see a new city reclaimed from bog 
and marsh to take its place. If we thank the founders 
of the church and the state, we must also thank that 
long series of unknown benefactors who, with noiseless 
lal)or, put dry ground beneath their feet, till at length 
our City Hall stands where the spring tides of the river 
once came. 

But where are the aboriginal iidiabitants of the soil 
while this goes on? Who are these five swarthy 
boys, who tread swiftly with light steps the streets 

1 Holmes's Cambridge, p. !). Winthrop's Life and Letters, ii. 170. 
Ilutchiii.son's History of >lassachusetts, i. CL 

^ See Dr. Abiel Holmes's Memoir of Cambridgeport, p. 1, in appen 
dix to his sermon at the ordinatiun of Kev. T. B. Gannett, Jan. 19, 181 1. 



ORATIOX BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGIXSOX. 53 

of the little town, in the year 1659 ? They turn into 
Crooked Street, now Holyoke Street, and enter the 
door of a little schoolhoase, just where the deserted 
printing-office now stands. This is the house of Mr. 
Elijah Corlet, that " venerable old schoolmaster in 
Cambridge," as Cotton Mather calls him, wlio teaches 
" a faire grammar school for boys, that still, as they are 
judged ripe, they may be received into the Colledge." 
Only two of the Indian pupils ripen to that extent, 
but those two, Joel and Caleb, are called forth on Com- 
mencement Day, 1659, just before entering, and are 
examined by the President in turning a chapter of 
Isaiah into English. More interesting than either of 
these, perhaps, is another of Master Corlet's scholars, 
who passes into that other imiversity, the printing- 
press, and there toils, the livelong day, on Eliot's 
Bible and Pierson's Indian Catechism. These are tlie 
propositions he prints, in alternate English and Indian, 
" How do you prove that there is but one God ? Answer. 
Because singular things of the same kind, when they 
are multiplied, are differenced among themselves by 
their singular properties ; but there cannot be fomid 
another God differenced from this by any such like 
properties." ^ Singular, indeed, were the properties of 
an intellectual diet like this, and we cannot wonder 
that Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Indus, remains the only 
aboriginal name on the Harvard catalogue, or that he 
died of rapid consumption within a few months after 
taking his degree. 

Another year passes by, and what stern strangers are 

1 Dr. J. H. Trumbull, in Memorial History of Boston, i. 467. 



54 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

these, representing European civilization instead of 
savage wildness ? Their presence links the little town 
with events that have shaken the Old World to its 
centre. The same ship that, in 1660, brings to Boston 
the news of Charles II. 's restoration, brings also two 
of those who doomed his father to death. Gofle and 
Whalley, known in popular parlance as '• the Colonels," 
land in Boston, go at once to Cambridge, and " are en- 
tertained by the magistrates with great solemnity and 
feasted," even when proclaimed as " traitors " to the 
crown. Goffe's diary has in part been printed by the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. It makes little of 
feasting or solemn entertainments, but touchingl}' de- 
scribes a visit paid to Ehler Frost in his poor abode. 
" A glorious saint," writes the exile, '' makes a mean 
cottage a stately palace : were I to make my choyce, I 
would rather abide with this saint in his poor cottage 
than with any of the princes I know of, at this day, in 
the world." There is a grim dignity in this compli- 
ment, coming from a man who had helped rid the world 
of at least one prince. The regicides stayed but a 
short time in Caml)ridge, yet long enough to leave to 
our local dialect a singular oath, which I remember 
distinctly to have heard here in boyhood, '• By GofTe- 
Whalley ! " It is a curious commentary on the career 
of these bold men, that their names should have been 
the object of malediction throughout one continent, and 
the vehicle of it in another. 

With such diver.se elements in society, the Cambridge 
of that day cannot have been the dull, prosaic place 
we sometimes fancv when we think of a Puritan town. 



ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 55 

Life was varied by the perils and excitements of 
frontier life, mingled with the pomps and the crimes 
of a type of society now passed away. Consider how 
much of adventm'e was represented by the hunts which 
brought in seventy-six wolves' heads as late as 1696, 
and which yielded annually " many " bears down to the 
period of the Revolution. Recall the picture of tho.se 
magnificent funerals, like that of Andrew Belcher, in 
1717, when ninety-six pairs of kid gloves were issued, 
and fifty suits of mourning clothes Avere made for 
guests, at the cost of the estate. Or turn from this to 
the tragedy enacted at the Gallows Lot, near what is 
now Arlington Street, then the northwesterly corner of 
the old Common. It is 1755; there is still slavery in 
Massachusetts, and two negroes belonging to Captain 
Cod man, of Charlestown, have committed " joetty trea- 
son " by murdering their master. They are drawn on 
sleds to the place of execution. Mark, a young fellow 
of thirty, is hanged, and PhillLs, " an old creatui^e," is 
burned to death at a stake ten yards from the gallows. 
When we think that this fearful tragedy took place but 
one hiuidi-ed and twentj'-five years ago, and that it does 
not seem to have created a protest or a ripple in pub- 
lic opinion, shall we not be charitable to those com- 
munities in which the virus of slavery has worked far 
more profoundly and more recently than with our 
fathers ? ^ 

' I am ii^minded by my friend Professor James B. Thayer, of the 
Harvard Law School, that the punishment of death for petty treason, 
defined in the dictionaries as " the offence of killing a master or a hus- 
band," was in ITo.i punishable with de.ath by English law, without spe- 
cial reference to chattel slavery or to the race of the servant ; but it may 



56 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

But we nuist hasten onward. The sliadow of the 
jjfreat Revolution draws near. Nowhere better than in 
Cambridge can we understand how essentially this was 
an outbreak of the people, as distinct from the wealthier 
classes. After the original simplicity of the settlers, 
when Winthrop censured Dudley for wainscoting his 
house, had cotne a period of social magnificence. From 
Brattle Square to Mount Auburn there extended an 
unbroken series of stately houses representing the aris- 
tocracy of Cambridge, — the Brattles, Vassalls, Lech- 
meres, Olivers, Ruggleses, and the rest. Madame 
Riedesel, the wife of a general captured with Burgoyne's 
army, w'rote thus about them: "Never had I chanced 
upon such an agreeable situation. Seven families, who 
were connected with each other, partly by the ties of 

be doubted whether it would have been actually inflicted, at that period 
and on this soil, e.xcept when the crime was aggravated by these two con- 
sidei-atious. As to the burning, it was regarded as an act of hnmanity, 
strange to say, in the opinion of that period. The punisiiment for petty 
treason in case of men was to be " hanged, drawn, and quartered:" 
and Blackstone says, in respect to women, tiiat " in treasons of every 
kind the punishment of women is the same, and different fro'n that of 
men. For as the decency due to the sex forbids the exposing and publicly 
mangling their bodies, their sentence (which is to the full as terrible to 
sensation as the otiier) is to be drawn to the gallows and there to be 
burned alive." And again he says, " The punishment of petty treason, 
in a man, is to be drawn and hanged, and in a woman to be drawn and 
burnt; tiie idea of which latter punishment seems to have been handed 
down to us by the laws of the ancient Druids, which condemned a woman 
to be burnt for murdering her liusband: and it is now the usn.al punish- 
ment for all sorts of treason committed by tiiose of the female sex." 
(Blackstone's Commentaries (ed. 1700), iv. 0.3.204.) Pike's "History 
of Crime " (ii. pp. .378, .379, 049) shows that there were two cases of tlic 
burning of women for petty treason in the Western Circuit of England 
between 1782 and 178t, and the author seems to think the latter the 
last case known. Petty treasou was made simple murder by Mass. Sts. 
17Si, c. CO. 



OKATIOX BT COLONEL T. W. IIIGGINSOX. / 

relationship and partly by affection, had here farms, 
gardens, and magnificent houses, and, not far off, 
plantations of fruit. The owners of these were in the 
habit of meeting each other in the afternoons, now at 
the house of one, now at another, and making them- 
selves merry with music and the dance, living in pros- 
perity, united and happy, until, alas ! this ruinous war 
severed them, and left all their houses desolate except 
two, the proprietors of which were also soon obliged to 
flee." These men had not only the high social posi- 
tions, but the civil and military offices. Brattle was 
major-general of the province and colonel of the train- 
band ; Henry Vassall was lieutenant-colonel, and Oliver 
was lieutenant-governor of the province. Up and 
down Brattle Street they walked, as a Cambridge 
author has said, "scarlet-coated, rapiered figures, . . . 
creaking on red-heeled shoes, lifting the ceremonious 
three-cornered hat, and offering the fugacious hospi- 
talities of the snuff-box."' 

So uniformly did they take the wrong side in the 
Revolution that this -chain of houses was popularly 
called •■ Torv Row ; '•' and I can remember to have 
heai'd that name still sometimes given to Brattle Street 
in ray boyhood. But these houses are now identified 
with the later and more lasting intellectual honors 
of Cambridge. The long-celebrated school of William 
Wells was in the house of Ruggles ; Margaret Fuller 
lived in that of Brattle ; Lowell (were he only with us 
to-day!) still occupies that of Oliver; Longfellow has 

* Lowell's Fireside Travels, p. 80. 



58 AFTERXOOX EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

given a more permanent fame to that of Vaissall. The 
" Tory Row " of our ancestors has become the '^ Glorv 
Row " of our poets. 

Let us revisit that street in fancy, as it appeared 
when the days of the Revohitiou were approaching-. 
It must be remembered that, alter the Boston Port Bill 
had reduced the whole region to distress, tliere came 
an order that the members of the governing council 
should not be elected, as belbre, by the General Court, 
but that they, with the governor and lieutenant- 
governor, should be appointed by the crown. It hap- 
pened that the Lieutenant-Governor, Oliver, and two 
Councillors, Danforth and Lee, were citizens of Cam- 
bridge. Against these last officers, called habitually 
"mandamus" councillors, from the word with which 
the royal order began, great popular wrath arose. 
Coidd we look on tlie viciuit}- of Cambridge on Sept. 
2, 1774:, w^e should see parties of excited men draw- 
ing together from all Middle.sex County, bringing arms, 
ammunition, and provisions, and finally depositing these 
in improvised camps, nnd luu-rying on, amned with 
sticks only, to the town srpiare of Cambridge, pausing 
on the way, sometimes, to hoot and groan before the 
houses on " Tory Row." Round the court-house steps 
we should see a gathering of several thousand men, 
talking, gesticulating, swearing ; yet they are not 
a mad mob, but, as Oliver afterward assures Gage, 
" the freeholders of the county." At last there rises 
among them the figure of an infirm man, almost 
seventy-five years old, — Judge Danforth, who has 
been a member of the council by thirty-six successive 



ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 59 

elections. There is a general hush to hear him, anfl 
he tells them, with a voice still firm, that he had meant 
to accept the appointment, believing that he could 
serve them in it, but that, finding the general popular 
feeling against it, he has resolved to resign it. He 
gives them a written pledge : " Although I have this 
day made an open declaration to a great concourse of 
people who assembled at Cambridge that I had re- 
signed my seat at the council board, yet, for the further 
satisfaction of all, I do hereby declare under my hand 
that such resignation has actually been made." Judge 
Lee, a younger man, standing by Danforth, makes a 
similar declaration ; the meeting unanimously votes 
that it accepts the declaration, and also that it dis- 
approves of mobs, riots, and the destruction of private 
property, — this vote being carried, probably, amid a 
flourishing of sticks which looks a little inconsistent 
with its spirit. 

But the end is not yet. Just as all seems subsid- 
ing, an obnoxious revenue commissioner, Benjamin 
Hallowell, unluckily drives through the town and is 
recognized ; horsemen to the number of one hundred 
and sixty make after him ; part are disarmed and re- 
turn ; but one person, wdio comes down to history only 
as " a gentleman of small stature," keeps on after Mr^ 
Hallowell, and stops his chaise. Hallowell snaps his 
pistols in vain, jumps from his chaise, and mounts his 
servant's horse, then gallops through Roxbury to 
Boston. His horse drops exhausted within the gates, 
and he runs on foot toward the camp, crying aloud 
that all Cambridge is risen in rebellion, and thousands 



60 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. 

of men are at his heels. Never before was one gentle- 
man of small stature so enormously multiplied. The 
camp is up ; friends of the patriotic cause send a mes- 
senger on a fleet horse to Cambridge, where the mob is 
not yet dispersed. The crowd accepts the defiance, and 
marches to the house of Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, — 
the house now occupied by Professor Lowell, — and he 
is summoned forth, — "a dapper little man," as con- 
temporary fame describes him. ' The}' require him to 
resign his office in writing, which he does, and adds: 
•' My house at Cambridge being surrounded by about 
four thousand people, in compliance with their com- 
mand I sign my name." Then, and not till then, 
the crowd disperses. It is easy to see in this armed 
gathering of Middlesex freeholders in Cambridge a fit 
preparati(m for that other armed gathering a little 
more than six months later, when many of the same 
men shall assemble to waylay Percy's troops on the 
Concord road. But the Cambridge turmoil ends in 
peaceful dispersal, and. after the maimer of Anglo- 
Saxons, by eating and drinking. The Boston Gazette' 
says : " The gentlemen from Boston, Charlestown, and 
Cambridge having provided some refreshment for their 
greatly fatigued brethren, they cheerfully accepted, 
took leave, and departed in higli good humor and 
well satisfied." Let us hope that at the feast the health 
of the gentleman of small stature was drunk with an 
eminently appropriate three times three. 

Let us hasten forward to that period of seven months 

' Drake's Historic Fields aiirl Mansions, p. 319. 

' Sfpt. 5, 1774, quoted in Paiges Cambridge, p. 151. 



ORATIOX BY COLONEL T. \V. IIIGGINSON. (il 

later, the eve of the first revolutionary skirmish. We owe 
to a Cambridge woman, Mrs. Hannah Winthrop, j^erhaps 
the most vivid picture of that night of trial, "the hor- 
rors of that midnight cry," as she calls it, " preceding 
the bloody battle of Lexington." The women of Cam- 
bridge are aroused in the night by the beat of 
drums and ringing of bells. They are told that the 
British troops are marching on an expedition, and that, 
on their return, they are to burn the College and lay 
waste the town. The women take refuge with their 
children at '' a place called Fresh Pond," in sight 
and hearing of the skirmishing at West Cambridge, or 
Menotomy. There are seventy or eighty women with 
their children watching, while every shot may tell of 
the ruin of a home. They spend the night there, and 
the next day are ordered to Andover, whither the 
treasures of the College have already been sent. They 
begin their pilgrimage, alternately w'alking and riding. 
The roads are full of women and children ; they cross 
the fields of Menotomy, now Arlington, then a part of 
Cambridge, where the dead bodies lie unburied. This 
is one woman's account.' 

Meanwhile, upon these very fields, another woman, 
wife of John Hicks, has sent her boy of fourteen to look 
for his father. The child comes upon him dead by the 
roadside, with William Marcy and Moses^ichardson close 
by. All these are from Cambridge. Hicks has served 
in the " Boston Tea Party," and he and Richardson are 
both beyond military age. Marcy is a half-witted 
youth. The boy procures help and a wagon, and he 

' Women of the American Revolution, by Elizabeth F. Ellet, i. 94,9.5. 



()2 AFTERNOON EXEKCISKS AT SANDEItS THEATRE. 

and some of the Avoiueii return home with their dead, 
ria.stil}', by toichli<fht, the three are buried in one grave. 
They are hiid in their bloody garments, and the son of 
Ricliardson, by a hasty impulse, turns the cape of his 
father's coat over his face to shield it. A century 
after, in searching for the grave, a piece of stained cloth 
is found, worn with years, but still bearing, in the 
opinion of chemists, some traces of the blood shed that 
this nation might live.' 

No place is more saturated than Cambridge with as- 
sociations that bind us with the opening years of the 
American Revolution. In the old church that stood 
near where Dane Hall now stands — the church whose 
hing-ed seats I can remember to have let fall with 
delight in childhood — Avas held the first provincial 
congress which organized the minute-men and the Com- 
mittee of Safety. From yonder old house, the " gambrel- 
roofed house " of Dr. Holmes, issued the order for the 
fortifying of Bunker Hill, and from its doorstep Pres- 
ident Langdon offered prayer ere the troops marched 
away. Down yonder street rode Putnam, probably in 
shirt-sleeves and leather breeches, eager for the fray. 
On the Conunon were gathered the rough tents of the 
provincials, and, beneath the well-known elm, Wash- 
ington assumed command. There, also, was first reared 
the "great union" Hag, bearing the mingled crosses of 
St. George and St. Andrew, with thirteen stripes. The 
very street on which this building fronts was created 
by the Revolution, inasmuch as Wa.shington laid it out 

1 Address by Rev. Alex.ander McKenzie, D.D., Cambridge Revolu- 
tinnary Memorial, pp. 33, 39. 



ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. niGGINSON. 63 

as a military road, ending in a l^attery which cannonaded 
Boston, and from which was thrown the cannon-ball 
once imbedded in the walls of Brattle Street Church.^ 
The very buildings of Harvard College were used for 
barracks. It was called the " hotbed of the rebellion." 
So thorough was its patriotism that one student was 
refused readmission, when the classes were again a.ssem- 
bled, because he had spoken disrespectfully of Congress 
and even of the General Court. If such severity were 
used in these times, I fear that the College wo aid be 
decimated more severely than by the measles. 

We must pass rapidly over the years that have made 
us a nation. Once again the panorama of war unrolls, 
and another April renews, in 1861, the excitement of 
1775. With singular appropriateness, the first to vol- 
unteer for the civil war is the great-grandson of that 
Moses Richardson, who was buried with his face veiled 
in his bloody cape. As early as Jan. 5, 1861, Captain, 
afterwards Colonel James P. Richai'dson Lssued his call 
for a militia company, now claimed to have been the 
first recruited expresslj' for the Union service after the 
breaking out of the rebellion. The President's call 
for three months' men was dated April 15, the Gov- 
ernor's order April 16, and this company reached the 
State House, ninety-five strong, on the morning of the 
17th. After the three months' service all but two re- 
enlisted ; twenty-seven were ultimately commissioned 
as officers ; twenty-one received the higher promotion 
of death. In presence of facts like these, words are 

' Drake's Historic Fields and Mansions, p. ISO. Paige's Cambridge, 
p. 432. 



»J4 AFTERXOOX EXEUCISES AT SANDEKS THEATRE. 

needless to show that the olil New Engliind spirit has 
not died out from among us. More than four thousand 
men went into the militai-y and naval service from 
Cambridge, during the civil war; nearly four hundred 
lost their lives. And of the lo^'alty and self-devotion 
of those who owe to Harvard University their educa- 
tion, this statel}" bviilding will speak so long as there 
remains a vestige of its walls. 

Upon the peaceful progress of Cambridge since it be- 
came a city, in 1846, it is not needful that I should 
dwell. These events are too near to have 3'et mel- 
lowed into history, and some future orator, to whom we 
and ours have become a part of antiquity, must gather 
up their memorials and make them his theme. Suffice 
it to say that the disinterested energy and public spirit 
required to carry on the ordinary administration of 
a city like this imply qualities such as only self- 
governing nations show. The danger is, that com- 
munities which show them will become materialized in 
the process, and be too much absorbed in their own 
successes. Here comes in the intluence of our great 
University, and restores the balance of our judgment. 
Its presence among us is a perpetual pledge to a larger 
standard of social aims. Let other cities point to their 
myriad spindles and their vast machine-shops; it is the 
boast of Cambridge, that, while not wanting in respect 
to these things, she has reared a community in which 
wealth takes but its just place, and a man is chietly 
valued for what he knows and what he is. 

In proof of this, what more is needed than to recall 
the simple and noble services which took place this 



ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGIXSON. 65 

morning in this very hall ? In France and in Germany 
I have seen memorial pageants, gorgeous with the trap- 
pino-s of war ; in England I have seen municipal festi- 
vals, resplendent with art and manufactures ; but I 
have never seen any celebration so deeply memorable 
as when the city of Cambridge, bringing together its 
thousands of young children, placed before them two 
of her poets, and said "These are my jewels." 

How swiftly passes away, after all, the short space of 
two hundred and fifty years ! A very few lives compass 
it. We, who remember even the civil war, seem old 
men to schoolboys Avho only read of it; and I was 
asked some time since, by a little urchin, whether I a\ as 
in the battle of Bunker Hill. But many of us can re- 
member aged men who claimed to have been present 
at that battle, and who long seemed rather to mul- 
tiply than diminish in numbers. Those men had 
talked with men who had known the second Governor 
Dudley; and he was the son of the first Governor Dud- 
ley, who built the great palisade and kept the little 
settlement safe. A few lives thus bridge the whole 
interval, but the difference of thoughts and manners is 
greater than of years. Perhaps no one of us Avould 
now say, like Dudley, that he hated the very name of 
toleration, nor does any successor of Shepard pray his 
prayers or preach his sermons. But the principles of 
rectitude, on which they sought to fashion the world 
around them, must be the basis of the modern Cam- 
bridge and of that larger Cambridge that is yet to be. 
Approach, unveil thyself, unseen story of the future ! 
This brief retrospect of the half-hidden past is done. 



66 AFTERXOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS TH?;ATRE. 



At the conclusion of the morning exercises a hincli was 
served in the Memorial Hall Dining-Room, and. in the inter- 
val between the afternoon exercises and the banquet, the 
members of the City Council and the invited guests enjoyed 
the hospitality of the Union Club, at the club-rooms, in 
Cambridgeport. 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 



AT a little past six o'clock the people began to gather at 
Union Hall to attend the banquet, which was to bring 
the clay's celebration to a close. The hall had been elaborately 
decorated by Colonel William Beals for the occasion, and it 
presented to the assembling company a brilliant and beautiful 
scene. From the centre of the ceiling to the cornice on all 
sides of the hall hung pennants, twenty in number, forming a 
graceful canopy of the national colors. The centre-piece was 
a shield bearing the date "1630," and flanked by four flags 
upon short staffs. Upon the centre of the wall, in the rear of 
the platform, was a painted female figure, nine feet high, repi'e- 
senting the genius of America. Over it was an eagle covered 
with a thousand spangles, which shone with dazzling bright- 
ness. The wall on either side of the painting was hidden by- 
flags, and encircling the whole device wei-e the woi'ds, in letters 
of gold upon a blue ground, " The Celebration of the 250th 
Anniversary." The cornice around the rear and side walls 
w-as covered with bunting; and upon the faces of the pilasters 
were hung the banners of all nations, the top of each support- 
ing a coat of ai-ras of one of the States. In the centre of the 
rear wall were the figures "1880," surrounded by flags; and 
along the front of the galleries were festoons of red, white, 
and blue bunting, dotted with various colored shields. The 
walls beneath the galleries were also festooned with flaijs and 



70 TUE BANQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 

banners. Spanning the long table upon the platform was an 
arch burning a hundred gas-jets, and the platform itself was 
fringed with pot-plants and bouquets. The general effect was 
pleasing in the extreme. 

Eight rows of tables, Avith tasteful settings of china and 
glass, and a liberal display of flowers, were placed lengthwise 
the hall, offering accommodations for six hundred and fifty 
persons, and every seat was occupied. At a prominent place 
upon the floor sat six members of the Governor's staff", and at 
other tables were seated the members of the City Council and 
many of the most prominent citizens. Ladies and gentlemen 
were present in about equal numbers. His Honor tlie ]\Iayor 
presided, and was surrounded on the platform by the following 
invited guests: Governor John D. Long, President Charles 
W. Eliot, the Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D., the Rev. William 
Newell, D.D., the Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D., the Rev. 
Lucius R. Paige, D.D., the Hon. E. S. Tobey, Dr. William 
Everett, Colonel T. W. Higginson, Collector A. W. Beard, 
Ex-Governor William Claflin, the Hon. John W. Candler, 
tiie Hon. J. M. S. Williams, and Ex-Mayors J. Warren Jler- 
rill, Ezra Parmenter, Charles H. Saunders, H. O. Houghton, 
Frank A. Allen, and Samuel L. Montague. Tiie galleries 
were occupied by ladies and gentlemen who were participants 
in the festivities only as spectators. 

During the evening the Dana Council Orcliestra furnished 
excellent music ; and between the speeches letters were read 
from William M. Evarts, George F. Hoar, J. A. Garfield, 
John G. Whittier, Robert C. Winthrop, Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, and James Russell Lowell. 

Tiie company came to order at a quarter before seven 
o'clock, and the Rev. Lucius R. Paige invoked the Divine 
blessing. An hour and a half later the Mayor rose, greeted 
with great applause, and spoke as follows: — 



THE BANQUET AT UXION HALL. 71 



OPENING ADDRESS BY MAYOR J. M. W. HALL, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — When the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science met, a few 
months since, in Boston, the Mayor of that city, in 
welcoming the members, remarked that it was the first 
time Boston had been honored by their convention. 
The President, in responding, said that the Association 
met once in Cambridge, and that outside of this region 
Cambridge was looked upon as a part of Boston. We 
sincerely hope this is not one of the results of the inves- 
tigations of modern science. If it is, our scientific 
friends assuredly must to-day lay it upon the shelf 
among the rapidly accumulating list of '' exploded 
theories." Cambridge, after two hundred and fifty 
years of existence, rejoices still in her individuality and 
independence, with a history in importance and splen- 
dor equalled by few cities on the American continent. 
Should the time ever come (as we hope it never may) 
when for any reason a union with our more populous 
neighbor should be thought best, we shall insist, as a 
condition not customary in matrimonial alliances, that 
Cambridge shall ever retain her maiden name. 

It is a matter of history, I believe, that after Gov- 
ernor Winthrop, Deputy-Governor Dudley, and others 
concluded the formal agreement, Dec. 28, 1G30, to settle 
Cambridge (or Newe-towne, as it was called), the good 
old Governor found, as he thought, before commencing 
to build, the following spring, that the water was better 



72 THE lUXQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

on the other side of Chai'les River thuii on this .side, 
and as a consequence he removed the frame of his 
house to Boston (or Shawmut), and erected it early in 
1631. Governor Dudley built in Cambridge, and lived 
here some years, drinldng its water, — no doubt, the 
pure Fresh Pond water. He died in 1053, at the good 
old age of seventy-six. Governor Winthrop moved 
to Boston, and died in 1649 at the comparatively early 
age of sixty-two. The historian does not add, what I 
think under the circumstances we may with some 
degree of confidence assert, that, had Governor Win- 
throp remained in Cambridge and drank the Fresh 
Pond water, his life would have been prolonged many 
years, — certainly to the age of Governor Dudle3^ 
It would seem as if there must be some of the lineal 
descendants of Governor Winthrop among us at the 
present day, who turn with longing ej'es to Boston's 
water-supply. If such there be here, we can only say, 
remember Governor Winthrop's early fate and take 
warning. 

It is asked by some. What is the value of observing 
a s^m'-centennial ? Why not wait luitil tlie centennials 
come round ? Now, whatever that old adage may mean, 
" Never do things by halves," it was not intended to be 
applied to serai-centennial celebrations. Certainly, if 
for no other reason than that of compassion for the 
historian of the future, it is a duty for every city and 
town in this country to gather the records of each fifty 
years, and leave them in a compact form for reference 
in the years to come ; and indeed a still more apparent 
reason is, that, did we observe only centennials of our 



THE BANQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 73 

history, most of us would have a slim chance of being 
present at the next one. 

We celebrate a double anniversary to-day, — our 
first quarter-millennial and our fifth semi-centennial. 
The Orator of the Day has rendered great service to 
this city by so interestingly and fully collating the 
principal event.s of our first two hundred and fifty 
years, and in such a way as must prove of large value, 
not only in our daj', but to the historian of the future. 
To attempt to recapitulate them on this occasion would 
be as vuiwise as it would be unnecessary. 

The last fifty years of our history are perhaps the 
most important of the five semi-centennials, so far as 
material results are concerned. During this period our 
city has grown from childhood into manhood, — from 
the town of six thousand to the city of fifty-three thou- 
sand inhabitants, with $50,000,000 valuation. That 
the next fifty years, on whose threshold we stand, will 
be as prosperous as the last, we do not doubt. 

I have invited others to speak to you this evening, 
more particularly than I can, of some of the local 
changes of the last half-century as witnessed by them. 
Permit me to ask you to follow me in imagination as I 
step forward fifty years. And surely a little extrava- 
gance of thought may be permitted, since nothing we 
are likely to suppose for the next half-century can sur- 
pass in degree the marvellous changes of these last 
fifty years. 

Few persons not connected with a city government 
realize the amount of time and thought even now 
required and bestowed on questions of " water-supply 



t-i THE UAXQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

and drainage." Our neighboring city is at the present 
time endeavoring to perfect a S3stem which lias alreadj- 
required the best scientific skill in our land and an out- 
lay of many millions of dollars. What, then, may we 
expect to witness fifty years hence in these directions ? 
In the first place, instead of constant perplexities 
among the Water Boards as to how a sufficient 8uppl\" 
of pure water can be furnished for all proba])le de- 
mands, science will have unravelled the difficulty and 
have brought aerial currents under such control that at 
any time an old-fashioned thunder-storm can be pro- 
duced and our reservoirs and storage-basins rei)len- 
ished at a few hours' notice. What will become of 
" Old Probabilities " when that time comes I leave 3"0u 
to imagine. His calculations would always have to be 
qualified somewhat as follows : " For New England, 
clear weather with rising barometer, suliject to local 
interferences in the way of manufactured thunder- 
storms." 

The question of drainage of all these cities and 
towns — which seems likel}' to drain their treasuries 
too — will then be satisfactorily adjusted. Even now 
the needs of one city must be determined in its 
relation to adjacent cities or towns, and even to 
remote districts bordering on the same river. This 
must soon assume such magnitude as to require State 
legislation and supervision ; and since most rivers in 
their courses flow through several States, eventually a 
National Commission will have to be established. This 
Couimission will ver\- likely report in favor of a great 
national svstem, to which States shall be tributarj-. 



THE BANQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 75 

emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, and thence carried 
b}" the Gulf Stream far bejond the reach of any human 
habitation into mid-ocean. But an international ques- 
tion may here arise. As the Gulf Stream sweeps around 
the northern coast of Europe, our Norwegian friends 
may object to our plans, and the dream of the distin- 
guished gentleman from that country (Prof. Bjornson) 
who has been with us the last few months may prove 
true. In conversation with him a few days since I 
asked what he thought of the future of republicanism 
in Europe. He replied, " Grand, grand ; and my belief 
is, that eventually Norway, Holland, and the United 
States are to form one republic." It did not occur to 
me then, as it does now in thinking of fifty years ahead, 
that the drainage question will bring it to pass. Then, 
too, shall one hope of the modern " Greenbacker " be 
realized, for all idle laborers in the country shall find 
ample employment on the great national sewer, and 
epidemics shall no more appear. 

There are other matters of minor importance, such 
as quick transit; more rapid direct communication; 
how our suburbs shall be occupied, and the country 
towns be prevented from decline, and our larger cities 
relieved of their overcrowded population. The tele- 
phone, pneumatic tubes, and elevated roads are already 
solving these problems. The solution of them is greatly 
facilitated by those very convenient but most conserva- 
tive institutions, " horse-railroads." 

Then, too, the question of cheap light seems to be 
practically settled already by the electric light, which 
bids fair to eclipse the gas-light in diminished cost 



76 THE BAXQUET AT UXION HALL. 

and increased brilliancy. What improvements and 
applications of this are to be made within fifty j^ears 
are beyond computation. We' may anticipate that in 
the near future large globes of electric light will 
nightly be suspended above our cities, diffusing the 
light of day and making of the moon a third-rate lumi- 
nary. This same power that gives the light is yet to 
drive the engine, — and then good-bye to boiler explo- 
sions. It will be applied in numberless ways to 
domestic and manufacturing purposes, ministering to 
the comfort and convenience of humanity. 

An instrument has recently been invented to weigh 
and measure human thought. When Job of old ex- 
claimed, " Oh that my grief were weighed ! " possibl}- 
he foresaw that the nineteenth century could do such 
a thing. What the next improvement here will be I 
hardly venture to predict, — possibly a machine to do 
men's thinking. I should hope that my successor, who- 
ever he may be, who has the arrangement of our third 
Centennial, may have some such auxiliary on that 
occasion. And so we might go on till 

" Imagination's utmost stretch 
In wonder dies aw.iy." 

But I am sure we have drawn upon the imagination 
to such an extent that we shall be glad to return to the 
sober and practical realities of the present, w^liich is so 
important a factor in what the future is to be. What 
the next two hundred and fffij years will produce we 
may not tell : our wildest conjecture would fall far 
short of the reality. What the next ffti/ years will 
bi'ing we can but dunl>/ imagine. With half the same 



THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 77 

ratio of increase in our city for tlie next half-century, 
our entire water-front will be filled with busy manufac- 
tories, and the now vacant land on our Ijroad avenues 
be covered with pleasant homes. If Cambridge is 
regarded by some as more of a dormitory or adjunct of 
Boston than as a distinct municipality, we need not on 
that account have any fears as to our continued growtli ; 
for Boston is getting to be such a pour place to sleep in 
that it is an excellent reputation for any city or town to 
be considered a good resting-place, and Cambridge has 
the double advantage of offering to tired humanity her 
attractive homes for a short sleep and either of the beau- 
tiful cemeteries for a longer sleep. Looked at in either 
light, Cambridge is destined to grow. It is a most 
pleasant thought that so many, from all over our coun- 
try, desire, after life's battles are fought and its work 
finished, to be laid to rest here within the quiet and 
peaceful shades of our cities of the dead, and to mingle 
their dust with earth that was consecrated by the first 
1)1 ood shed for American liberty, and hallowed in being 
in every generation the resting-place of so many who 
deemed no sacrifice too great to maintain and transmit 
unsullied this magnificent fabric of States united for 
free government of free men. 

And what shall the future be ? We may not tell : 
we nuuj tell. We are so immersed in the present that 
it sometimes seems as if we had the present alone to 
deal with ; but it is upon the future we are each day 
setting our seal, and as we mould so shall others use 
and occupy. We think of the past, and say our fathers 
laid the foundation ; we are building on that. " They 



78 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

builded better than they knew," say we ; so does every 
man who knows how to buikl, for he builds with God. 
But are we laying no foundation ? Most certainly. 
We are not only building on, but adding to the founda- 
tion laid two hundred and fifty years ago. And what 
the future may be is ours largely' to determine. As 
we look around us and see these tangible evidences of 
success, we rejoice in the mighty accomplishments. In 
certain parts of our land are relics of a past race, who 
are known to us only as " mound-builders." Who they 
were, for what they lived, we know not. So far as we 
are concerned their lives were useless, except to excite 
our curiosity ; but no more so than ours will be, if our 
ideal is no higher than the mere material wealth which 
adorns a city. No, it is not in these we would delight 
so much as in that which makes all these things ])ossible. 
That faith in the republic which shall i)ut to flight all 
such miserable doubts as ask " How long shall it last?" 
that love for freedom which shall scorn to shackle any 
man in soul or body, which shall bid every earnest 
seeker for truth and true manhood " God-speed " ; that 
reverence for the past which shall ever hold in high 
regard those who dared to be true to themselves and 
true to us, by being true to God, — who, with the Charter 
in one hand and the Bible in the other, learned the 
secret of all true and sure government in obedience to 
God first ; that love for our children which shall leave 
them something better than silver and gold, even the 
example which shall daily teach them to fear God and 
the homely old virtues, love for truth and fidelity to 
trust, and a charity which shall reach a helping hand to 



THE BANQUET AT UXION HALL. 79 

every brother-man to lift him to a nobler and better 
life, — these shall make the republic firm and endur- 
ing. So shall we too lay foundations as deep and strong 
and sure as those on Avhich we build, which others 
laid. So shall our lives fit into theirs, and they without 
us shall not be made perfect. For our work shall be 
made manifest, that not for time alone, but for eternity 
we builded ; for above these things that are seen and 
temporal shall rise ourselves above ourselves into lives 
that shall be eternal. 

Tlie sentiment ofFered as the first toast of the evening 
was, — " Tlie Republic of the United States ; strong in that 
which is the truest Liberty." 

RESPONSE BY COLLECTOR A. W. BEARD, OF BOSTON. 

Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, — When I 
accepted the invitation to be present at the exercises 
of the day, it was understood that a distinguished 
member of the Cabinet was to respond to the sen- 
timent just announced, and that I was to have the 
pleasure of attendance, without having, by any words 
of mine, to mar the harmony of the occasion. But 
notwithstanding, Mr. Mayor, that you have placed me 
in this position, I thank you for the invitation which 
brought me here, and has extended to me all the |)rivi- 
leges which I have enjoyed to-day. It is worth years 
of a man's life to witness what I witnessed in the morn- 
ing in the exercises of the children of this city, and to 
see the loving greeting which they gave to the poets 
Longfellow and Holmes. It was no ordinary privilege 



80 THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

this afternoon to listen to the oration from a Cambridge 
citizen, in which he traced the progress of the citj of 
Cambridge, and, in tracing the progress of the city of 
Cambridge, traced the progress of the State and of the 
nation. The Orator of the Day said that two hundred 
and fifty years was but a short time, and so it is in the 
history of the world. But when we think of Avhat has 
been accomplished in that two himdred and fifty 3'ears, 
of all the progress that has been made, not onl}^ here 
but elsewhere, it seems as though there must have 
been very little of history before the commencement 
of the two hundred and fifty years that we have re- 
membered to-day. It has been the history of Cam- 
bridge and the great changes taking place in this city 
that the Orator has traced to-day ; but the national pro- 
gress has kept pace with that of your city. What was 
a wilderness two hundred and fifty years ago is to-day 
a great nation, with multitudes of people from ocean to 
ocean. This nation, with its fifty millions of people, 
has an intercommerce and business transactions between 
the States more in amount than the commerce of all 
the world on the day which you celebrate here tonight. 
We are a people occupying a country with almost all 
the resources that abound in all the climes of the 
world, — bound together by means of communication 
such as nobody dreamed of two hundred and fifty years 
ago. This morning, Avheu Mr. Holmes w'as reading his 
poem, in which he related the incident that gave rise 
to the poem, when he stood in the tower of Pisa, and 
saw the flag of his country in far-off Livorno, the thought 
occurred to me that many would be reminded that, with 



THE BA^"^QUET AT UNION HALL. 81 

all our prosperity, with all this great commerce that we 
are having with the rest of the world, — a commerce 
that our fathers could have had no conception of, — 
$1,500,000,000 in a single year, — this great commerce 
is carried on principally under foreign flags; that our 
banner, " the red and the white and tlie starry blue," 
is not the flag under which the products of the Ameri- 
can people are carried to the world elsewhere, and the 
products of the world are brought to us; but I have no 
particular lamentation to make on that account. When- 
ever the people of this country have fully developed 
the means of intercommunication between the States ; 
whenever there is a surphis of capital above what is 
needed to bring the products of the country to the sea- 
board; in short, whenever the Yankee nation gets 
ready to take the carrying trade across the ocean into 
its own hands, — it will find a way to do it, with or with- 
out navigation laws. My friend on the right (Hon. J. 
M. S. Williams) says" we can get along Avithout buying 
British bottoms." We have been without buying them 
for all these years, and I don't see that we have gained 
much by that policy. But I am not going to discuss 
that question. 

A few days ago I attended at Plymouth the celebra- 
tion of the two hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the 
landing of the Pilgrims there ; and I heard ^ a good deal 
of discussion as to whether the Pilgrims, who landed on 
Plymouth Rock two hundred and sixty years ago, fore- 
saw the glories of this great nation which they then 
founded ; and much discussion whether John Robinson, 
when he gave his blessing to the party who sailed 



82 THE BAXQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

in the Mayflower, felt that the full light — the full 
religious light — of the Bible had then beamed on the 
■world, or whether there would be further developments 
of religious trutli than he and they understood. 1 did 
not take a great deal of interest in the discussion of 
these questions. I was thinking all the while of what 
that people did when they came here, in founding and 
establishing a government. I said a few moments ago 
that when we considered the progre.ss of the last two 
hundred and fifty years, we had reason to think there 
was very little of history before ; but these were a peo- 
ple who landed on that barren rocky shore, — about a 
hundred souls, poor in this world's goods, not educated 
according to the standard of education at that day or 
the present, — and they announced a public policy and 
government that was perfect. We are told in the story 
of heathen mythology how Minerva came from the head 
of Jove full-grown and full-armed. But here was an 
humble people who planted on Plymouth Kock a policy 
that the two hundred and sixty years that have passed 
have made little improvement upon, — a policy of equal 
rights, equal before God and equal before the law. And 
in looking back upon the history of the colonists who 
came to this New England, there is another point that 
has imprinted itself upon my mind. Of all the colonies 
that were established, of all the settlements that were 
made in these New England States that were perma- 
nent, only one came here with a prepared government, 
with a code of laws made in England, and that was the 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay, from which this city de- 
rives its settlement; and that was less liberal, politi- 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 83 

cally and religiously, than any of the others ; that had 
an elevated class and exhibited distrust of the people, 
although it was a great advance on anything that the 
civilized world knew before. The Plymouth colonists 
made their government themselves ; it was a govern- 
ment for the people, made by the people. The colonies that 
went forth from the Massachusetts Colony to Hartford 
and to New Haven, the men who were driven from 
the Massachusetts Colony to Rhode Island, — all those 
colonies made their own governments, and they made 
them governments of equal rights and equal voices. 
In the Massachusetts Colony it is interesting to see the 
extended struggle that was made by the people to ac- 
quire full rights for the common people. There were 
educated men and rich men here, claiming what the 
rich and educated classes usually have claimed in the 
history of all the world, — claiming precedence. They 
had assistant governors; they had a class called free- 
men, but constantly the people contended for more 
rights than they had, and they gained them. The 
little Colony of Plymouth stamped its character on all 
the New England colonies ; and it is interesting to look 
back and see that when a confederation was formed of 
the New England colonies, Plymouth alone required its 
representatives to refer back to the people the action 
of the confederated assembly before they were willing 
to ratify its acts and come into the confederation. It is 
interesting, in tracing the history of the colonists, to see 
how religiously they regarded the rights of the people, 
how they persevered in the idea of an annual election. 
I wish to place to-night particular emphasis on this 



84 THE BANQUET AT UMOX HALL. 

point of an annual eleclion. Why, the people of Boston, 
the people of Cambridge, and all the people in the 
Massaehusett.s Bay Colony, were unwilling to trust even 
Winthrop to be elected governor for more than one 
year. The people of Comiecticut were equally jealous ; 
they were unwilling to trust the younger Winthrop to 
be elected governor for more than one year; but if I 
recollect aright, they re-elected him for seventeen years. 
Thej' felt that their servants should be responsible to 
them ; and if they did well, they were continued in 
office, but if they did not do well, they elected others 
to take their places. Now, Mr. Mayor, and ladies and 
gentlemen, I am old-fashioned enough to wish to fol- 
low the example of our fiithers. I believe in annual 
elections, and the responsibility which is felt by the 
servants of the people to the people, because of the 
recurrence of these annual elections. 

The fiithers carefully guarded the education of the 
children. They said that they should be well grounded 
in that education that was necessary to the prosecution 
of the common pursuits of life ; and the children of 
those days had the best of education in the necessity 
that compelled every man to earn' his own living, — 
the practical education which only required enough of 
scholastic acquirement to protect a man in his daily 
avocations and dealings with his neighbors. There is no 
education so practical as that acquired by a man who 
earns his own living. 

Mr. Mayor, a good deal has been said to-day about 
the part Cambridge — this city that you have reason to 
love so well — has had in the history of the past. The 



THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 85 

best wish that I can wish you and the citizens of this 
city, and those who are to come after you, is, that when 
the people of Cambridge shall celebrate the coming tri- 
centennial, fifty years hence, they can honestly feel, as 
you can to-day, that this city has continued to exercise 
that beneficent intluence on this great nation that you 
can proudly claim that it has in the past two hundred 
and fifty years. 

Dr. William Evekett was then introduced as the Poet of 
the evening. 

RESPONSE BY DR. WILLIAM EVERETT. 

As this is an antiquarian celebration, of course I 
turned to the colonial records to find out what hap- 
pened two liundred and fifty years ago. In them I 
got hold of a very fine fact, I thought, for my poem, 
which was that, although the General Court formally 
gave the name of Cambridge to Newtowne in 1638, 
after the College was founded, in point of fact the peo- 
ple of Newtowne had settled the name for themselves 
by calling it Cambridge in 1636, some time before the 
College was put here. I stated this fact to some his- 
torical friends, and they patted me on the back for the 
discovery ; but Dr. Paige was before me, and had made 
the real discovery that the words '' now called Cam- 
bridge " ' were written with a different kirid of ink in 

' The colonial records say " Newtowne now called Camhrldr/e," in 
1636, Sept. 8, that is, before any grant for a College at all. The General 
Court goes on meeting at Newtowne. The College is located at Newtowne 
in 1637. Newtowne is formalbj called Cambridge in 1638. It is these 
words that led the speaker to suppose a naming by the people in ordinary 
talk previous to the formal vote. But Dr. Paige says they are evidently 
a later additicn. 



86 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

the records of 1636, and so I was all wrong. Still my 
theory will do for a poem. I propose to show you how 
the inhabitants of Newtowne gave the name of Cam- 
bridge to themselves in 1636. 



NAMING CAMBRIDGE. 

1630. 

In the old town of Newtowne, at Tom Chisliolm's tavern, 
Where is full entertainment fur rider and beast, 

The good folks are met round the chimney's deep cavern, 
By Saturday night from their labors released. 

And the steaming flip circles, and Puritan jokes 

Relax their grim lips into many a smile, 
As farmer and deacon their mutual pokes 

Interchange on the sowing and selling the while. 

They tell how the runaway boy got a whipjiing ; 

How Mark Nowell's strong waters were sadly dilute; 
How Peter Ilarlakenden's cars wanted clipping 

For saying Luke Kno]i]) served his wife like a l)rute. 

Mr. Shepard's great sermon ; the Watertown bounds: 
How Plymouth was talking of fighting the Fiench ; 

Could the town ever make up the forty-two jiouiuls 

Which the council had levied, without a hai'd wrench ? 

IIow Endicott's ripping the cross from the flag 
The court had decreed was a rash indiscretion, 

And how his bold ])rotest turned out to be brag, 
Since at last he sid)mitted, with humble confession. 

So on goes their t.alk, till one topic more vital 
Absorbs all the rest in its paramount claim — 

" We 're sick of this Newtowne, this meaningless title ; 

Speak out, my good neighbors! What siiall be our name?" 



THE BAXQUET AT UNION HALL. 87 

"The name for our town ! " Back their thoughts go a-stra^ing, 
Till tear after tear down each rugged cheek steals ; 

To the village in England, where once they went niaying, 
And the old Gothic tower that the ivy conceals. 

And each is alert that his own quiet town, 
His own river ford, his own brisk harbor city, 

Shall stamp on the meadow by Charles the renown 
It bore in Old England in legend or ditty. 

" C:ill it Bristol, the haven whence Hawkins, the sainted, 

Carried slavery's blessings to Africa's sons ;" 
"Call it Warwick, where Brooke keeps the ohl faith untainted. 

And Avon to Stratford in purity runs." 

" Have it Huntingdon, town where our Cromwell is waiting 
To strike some brave blow that bids England be free ; 

Or Buckingham ; Hampden there now is debating 
The rights we have rescued and borne o'er the sea." 

" There 's Lincoln, that towers o'er the fens in her glory ; 

There's Norwich, that rings to the bri^k, busy loom; 
There 's Winchester, home of the old Saxon story ; 

There 's O.vford, where Ridley walked firm to his doom." 

" Call it — London," all shout till the rafters are shaken ; 

But old Drtnforth, removing his pipe from his lips, 
Said, "Brethren, I doubt you are somewhat mistaken ; 

The Lord will not furnish our Charles with the ships." 

And so, as they wrangled, the minister entered, — 

A saint and a hero, with God and with man : 
" And is this the best issue of all we have ventured, 

That each one would name by his own selfish plan ? 

" Can you think of no town, whence, for ages and ages, 
The stream of sound learning o'er England has poured ? 

That counteth by thousands her scholars and sages, 
Ivenowned among men and inspired of the Lord ? 



18 THE BAXQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

" Where learned the brave martyrs, wlien roared round our Zion 

The fagots of Oxford, God's truth to retain ? 
Who taught the wise council that ner\ed the she-lion 

To hurl her defiance at Parma and Spain? 

"Forget not the town in whose halls your true pastors 
Learnt the wisdom Jehovah vouchsafes to his own ; 

And dared for his sake to reject those proud masters, 
With you in the forest to serve him alone. 

" Forget not ; but here in the Charles' lovely valley 
Let Cambridge her halls and her studies renew, 

And, irice that old mother, her sons round her rally, 
To learning, to manhood, to Christ ever true. 

"Then, when London's rich commerce shall fade from the water, 
When Warwick's proud castle is sunk in the flame. 

When Rome bows to ruin and Paris to slaughter, 
New glory shall cover our town's peaceful name." 



Governor LoxG was called in response to the sentiment, 
" Tlie State — the ^lother of us all. Wherever we roam, our 
thought of her shall always be, ' God save the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts.' " 

RESPONSE BY GOVERNOR JOHN D. LONG. 

The conviction has been growing upon my mind of 
late, Mr. Mayor, that .somehow or other the times are 
out of joint. Either my friends were indeed right when 
they said I was too young, — though I never heard that 
objection raised against my worthy predecessor, John 
Wintlirop, who wa^^i of the same age, — or else every- 
thing and everybody have suddenly become imaccount- 
ably old. When the Orator of the Day told of the little 
boy who, questioning him about the war in which he 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 89 

bore so illustrious a part, asked him if he was at the 
battle of Bunker Hill, it did not surprise me. My only 
wonder is that he did not suspect the Colonel of having 
been in the Pequot War, or even of being the re- 
doubtable Miles Stand ish himself. Hardly an event 
has there been, during the short term of my administra- 
tion, that was not from an hundred to two hundred 
and fifty years old ; <and last week at Plymouth the oc- 
casion ran even ten years beyond that. If the thing 
goes much farther, I shall feel like wearing silver 
buckles and a ruffle, and like putting iron pots on the 
heads of my Staff, which might be quite akin to them, 
and would certainly be vastly more becoming. How 
delightful it would be, and how refreshing, if for a mo- 
ment we could onl}' turn from the past, and, looking 
into the future, celebrate in advance the five hundredth 
anniversary of the incorporation of Cottage City, or the 
violent annexation of the best part of Belmont to the 
city of Cambridge ! It would give us such an admira- 
ble opportunity, which we should certainl}- improve, 
of dwelling upon our services, our sacrifices, our virtues, 
which I dare say are grander than any which have 
gone before, upon the simplicit}- and excellence of our 
magistrates, the dignity of our Mayors and Executive 
Councillors, the stern but salutary government of our 
Colleges, the quiet demeanor of our boys, and the re- 
pressed and sombre lives of our young women. How 
charming it would be to mouse out the musty manu- 
script of the oration of one Colonel Higginson, who 
gained his title in the peaceful militia service of Massa- 
chusetts, and whose quaint conceits and honest boasts 



90 THE BANQUET AT UNIO>f HALL. 

of tlie civilization of his day would certainly be pardon- 
able in one who had only the education and advan- 
tages of the nineteenth century, but whose pure, though 
antiquated eloquence would go far to show that there 
were giants also in those days! I am not certain that, 
had our ancestors anticipated these anniversaries, they 
would not have most carefully concealed the dates of 
these early settlements, and so have spared their de- 
scendants the infliction of being compelled to hear, and, 
what is infinitely sadder, my friends, being compelled 
to speak, these conventional anniversary addresses. 

But, seriously, Mr. Mayor, having been present at 
many similar occasions, I can most truly say here, what 
I have most truly said at all the rest of them, that 
nowhere is there such a wealth of historic interest, no- 
where such a succession of significant events, nowhere 
such elements of high, sterling character, nowhere such 
enterprise, faith, courage, devotion, nowhere such love 
and appreciation of learning, and such contribution to 
its diffusion, as in the early history of the time and 
place which you now celebrate. Comprehensive and 
conciliatory as that statement is, it is yet the simple 
truth. For each of these anniversaries, which we do so 
well to celebrate by oration and banquet, by peal of 
bells and roar of cannon, by such a presence as this of 
your citizen men and women, amid the strains of your 
own music, and the decorations of your own halls, and 
by the spirited songs of your children, who bring their 
impressible minds to have photographed upon them the 
glory and goodness of the past, — each of these an- 
niversaries is a type of all the rest, and all pay common 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 91 

tribute to a common origin, a common ancestry, and a 
common training to which we are all alike indebted. 
If there is a continual glitter through the whole year, 
it is because, all around her coronet, Massaclmsetts is 
studded thick with jewels. 

With you, it may well be your pride that it is light 
and honor and growtli, all the way down in one broad- 
ening path, from the beginning till this da}'. When 
your Orator rose this afternoon, it seemed to me his 
only burden was his embarrassment of riches. How 
well he bore that burden those who were present and 
listened to him can bear witness. Winthrop and 
Dudley were in at your birth. The sacred name of 
the apostle John Eliot, still worthily honored down to 
and in this generation, is associated with the history of 
a portion of your ancient town ; and with it is hallowed 
in every heart and every memory the establishment 
of that little College which has now become, in this 
your city of Cambridge, the most famous University in 
America. And wliere learning is, there religion, pa- 
triotism, and poetry also take root. Hence Hooker 
went to found a pious city. Upon these greens the 
American army was drawn up ; under these elms 
Washington drew his sword and took command ; along 
these highways marched Putnam, Stark, Green, and 
those other heroes, at the bare mention of whose 
names, — so tender is always the Revolutionary mem- 
ory, — the heart stirs to tears quite as much as it stirs 
with pride. On your shores landed that flaunting de- 
tachment of British soldiers, which, after their memora- 
ble march to Lexington and Concord, came back with 



92 THE BANQUET AT UXION HALL. 

broken ranks and trailing colors. Here is the home of 
Lowell ; this is the birthplace of Holmes, Avhose poetry 
is that very health, the promotion of which has been 
his humbler and every-day calling. And hei-e lives 
Longfellow, to apply to whom any descriptive 2)hrase 
except to call hiru poet is to show what is the poverty 
on my tongue of that language which in his hand is 
only the potter's clay of grace and beauty and tender- 
ness. Here, too, was the volunteering again — history 
repeating itself — of ^our best blood and bravest pa- 
triotism in the last fight for liberty and country. 

But" it is not for me to attempt an enumeration 
of names and events which could only be an injustice 
by reason of its meagreness. Nor may I refer to my 
own memories of Cambridge ; or to my first sight of 
its towers one morning in June, so near the dawn that 
even the hourlies were not yet up and running, when 
at fourteen years of age, going to my college examina- 
tion, I walked all the way from Boston, keej^ing the 
right-hand side of Main Street, every inch of which 
is blistered into my memory to this day ; or to the 
later hour, when I sat crying in utter homesickness on 
the western steps of Gore Hall. That was certainly 
two hundred and fifty years ago, and the hearts that 
throbbed most at such a poor matter as my boyish 
heart-break are long since at rest. 

I said a broadening path of growth. 'J'hat is true. 
Venerable and honorable as is the past, our faces should 
be set toward the future. It is to the future that Mas- 
sachusetts, always alert and progressive, points her 
fini::cr. If she reveres and honors the time t^one bj-. 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 93 

as you revere and honor it to-day, it is only that she 
may be stimulated to better work in the time to come. 
We would not go back if we could. To do so would be 
to sleep like Rip Van Winkle, and wake to find that the 
world had swept by us out of sight, our garments out 
at elbow and our muskets crumbling. We may not 
have improved much, as we certainly have not, upon 
the purpose, the spirit, the moral force, the ultimate 
aim for self and for those who were to come after, 
which distinguished our flxthers ; but the expression, 
the appointments, the methods, are a thousand times 
better. Religion is still the same, but its garment of 
doctrine and formula has been renewed more than once. 
Character is still the man; but education, which is his 
fingers and his safeguard, has extended till it connnands 
every spring and force of nature, and every avenue of 
intelligence and of thought. Our food is better, our 
clothing is better, our health is better, our books, our 
homes, our enjoyments are all better, our children are 
healthier, and life is more worth living to-day than it 
was then. But let us not forget that if it is so it is 
because the germ was in the early soil, and because our 
fathers, who planted it and nurtured it, were true to 
themselves and true also to us. Therefore let us honor 
their memories, and let us hand down to those who 
shall come after us the opportunity and the purpose for 
a gain and a growth greater even than our own. There 
is one word that sums it all, and that word is progress ; 
that word is Massachusetts ; that word is every human 
soul, every home, every town within her borders; that 
word, emphatically, is this your beautiful and classic, 



94 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

your ancient and famous city of Cambridge, this grace- 
ful cluster of homes upon the hanks of the Charles, this 
sparkling gem upon the fair forehead of the Common- 
wealth. 

In introducing President ELmT the Mayor said : " In the 
year 18(30 our city elected a young man of unusually large in- 
tellectual capacity and executive ability as a member of the 
Common Council ; and there is no doubt that, had he remained 
in politics, he would have risen to the position of an alderman, 
but Harvard College offered him more congenial pursuits and 
made him her President, — the youngest, I believe, she has 
ever had. It can truthfully be said that Harvard College has 
drawn some inspiration from the city, as well as the city from 
the College. I give you as the next sentiment, 'Harvard 
University.' " 

RESPONSE BY PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT. 

I am rather surprised, Mr. Mayor, that it is left to 
me to observe upon the presence of the ladies at this 
festival. T say I am surprised, because our distin- 
guished friend, the Governor, has just been speaking. 
1 do not know that any presence could be more appro- 
priate, for we are celebrating the fovmdation of a town ; 
and though I believe that men make the best pioneers 
and explorers, I am sure that no ])lantation or town or 
colony was ever settled except by the aid of women. 
The men have to hunt, and fish, and plough, .and dig, 
and carry wood and water, but the women must cook, 
and wash, and sew, and bear and bring up the children 
that are to cause the growth and insure the permanence 
of the town. Let us therefore bear in our heart.>5, to- 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 95 

night, a tender remembrance of the many strong, good, 
patient, enduring women who made an essential part 
of this httle Cambridge. The town would never have 
been firmly settled without them. 

The period of two hundred and fifty years is not so 
very long, ladies and gentlemen. Why, our friend, 
the Rev. Dr. Paige, might easily have talked, when he 
was young, with a man who had talked with one of 
the first settlers. Really three long lives cover this 
period, which appears to us so vast. Indeed, I think 
Dr. Paige must have talked with such an old gentle- 
man, — talked with him a great deal. I was convinced 
this afternoon that Dr. Paige really made almost all the 
speeches that have been made to-day. I knew it be- 
cause, in preparation for my own little .share of to-day's 
festivities, I very carefully read Dr. Paige's History of 
Cambridge. And I observed this afternoon that the 
Orator of the Day had done the same. Indeed, I think 
we Cambridge people owe a great deal to the learned 
and accurate historian of the settlement. 

Our friend, the Mayor, indulged this evening in a 
celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the 
city of Cambridge ; and the Collector of the Port of 
Boston — the rival port of Boston — seemed to feel 
that the Pilgrim Fathers had done all that was worth 
mention on this side of the Atlantic, and that their prin- 
ciples were those which had been realized in the history 
of this people. And he dwelt at length also on a theme 
which I tliink most of us have heard touched upon before, 
namely, the vastness of this continent, and the number 
of people that could live on it; the amount of trans- 



96 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

portation possible on this continent, and the nmnber 
of things that we could send out of this country to a 
more needy one. Now, I feel some distrust as to 
the truth of the proposition that bigness of any kind 
is synonymous with true greatness. I love better to 
think, on an occasion like this, how poor, how few, the 
people were who settled Cambridge, for example, or 
Plymouth, and how long they held out here in a strug- 
gle with extreme poverty and hardship. The true 
greatness of a people is always in moral quality, and 
not in size of territory, or number, or riches. There are 
several great qualities of a people that I think the hi.s- 
tory of this little town illustrates. One of them is 
frugality, the principle of not paying out that which 
you have not got. I don't mean that the recent his- 
tory of this town illustrates that, but the early history. 
For instance, one of the earliest public works in Mas- 
sachusetts, and, I may add, one of the most enduring 
of the public works yet constructed in this country, is 
a ditch twelve feet wide and seven feet deep, from 
the river to the firm shore, executed at the expense of 
the town of Cambridge, in the second year of its set- 
tlement, by John Masters of Watertown, dug at once, 
and paid for by the taxes of the year. You may still 
see it on the western side of the College Wharf That 
Avas a very necessary work. It enabled the people to 
bring by boats the lumber, or brick, or other heavy ma- 
terial which they needed for building their houses, and 
to land it conveniently at the foot of the mound where 
the old Cambridge stood. I wish we had always fol- 
lowed in the footsteps of our fathers in regard to public 



THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 97 

works. We should be to-day a more numerous and a 
richer peoj^le. Their industry ! Think how our fathers 
worked. We think we work hard, but they worked 
infinitely harder. Honesty ! Are we any more honest 
than were our fathers ? We cannot answer j^es ; we 
shall be very thankful to say that we are as honest as 
they. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me say one word 
about the relations of Harvard University to Cambridge. 
These two corporations have had a rough experience 
together; they have been very poor and humble to- 
gether ; I hope they are going to be rich and prosper- 
ous together. Let me say that it is the desire of the 
governing boards of the University to do everything in 
their power to enhance the value of the University to 
the city of Cambridge. Let me point out how dear 
Cambridge is, through the influence of the University, 
to thousands of men who cannot have the delight of 
passing their lives here. And it is truer than I can ex- 
press that the influence of the College has always been 
upon the side of virtue, right, and freedom. We some- 
times hear talk about educated men having a less firm 
faith tlian others in popular government and in the 
virtues of the people. I don't know how an\' man 
who has known anything of the history of Harvard 
University can believe that. From the very founda- 
tion of the College it was always upon the side of free- 
dom, both in civil government and in religion, and no 
class of the community has testified, whether b}' the 
discharge of civil duty or of military duty, more de- 
votedly to their faith in free institutions than have the 



98 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

graduates of Harvard. The sweet influence of science 
and literature and piety is what gives worth and value 
to human life. 

I see by the census tliat Cambridge is becoming a 
manufacturing place. It has ceased to contain an agri- 
cultural population, and is becoming a manufacturing 
centre ; but no one need dread the change. There are 
certain industries which are said to be tests of the civ- 
ilization of a people, and several of them are established 
here in Cambridge. One of them is soap-making. The 
consumption of soap is one of the best indications of 
the civilization of a people. Another is the printing 
and binding of books, — an industry which has been 
domesticated in Cambridge ever since Day Avorked the 
first press of Kew England here. Another is the man- 
ufacture of musical instruments. All three of these 
trades prosper greatly in this city. Do not let us be 
concerned, then, if the principal occupations of the in- 
habitants of Cambridge have undergone great changes 
in the last forty years, and are likely to undergo greater 
still ; but let us hold fast to this, that the foundation 
of the prosperity of any people is in its character. 

" The Eighth Congressional District, whose merchants are 
princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth." 

RESPONSE 1?Y THE HON. JOHN W. CANDLER. 

Mk. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I thank you 
for your introduction, Mr. Mayor, and I thank the gov- 
ernment of the city of Cambridge for their kind 



THE BANQUET AT UNION IIALL. 99 

courtesy in inviting me here to-day. It is certainly a 
marl^ed day in my life. As the gentleman who pre- 
ceded me has suggested that two of your guests, the 
Orator of the Day as well as himself, had drawn upon 
the Rev. Dr. Paige's History, I feel somewhat embar- 
rassed, for I must acknowledge that I also made a very 
careful study of that history ; and I am therefore some- 
what confused when called to make my speech. 

I have heard the word "annexation," which gives 
confidence to a resident of Brookline. The Mayor said 
something about annexing Belmont to Cambridge, and 
I think the gentleman who preceded me said some- 
thing about annexing Boston. I have simply to say 
that if we tranquillize our town meetings, we may first 
annex Boston to Brookline, and we may afterwards 
annex Cambridge to Brookline. 

I am very glad to be here to-day. I cannot forget 
in this presence that I have recently been honored by 
being elected as the representative of the Eighth Con- 
gressional District in the Congress of the United States, 
and that this old community is the most influential and 
important town within its limits. I am glad to be here 
as a citizen of Massachusetts, for we all feel that the 
history of Cambridge is sacred to us. Her traditions 
are connected with the important part of the history 
of the country, and within the limits of this town and 
city you have an institution which, as was well said by 
a distinguished senator in France, has been the great 
promoter of American civilization. Certainly we all 
appreciate that the cause of liberty and the preserva- 
tion of the American government must depend upon 



100 THE UAXQLTET AT UXIOX HALL. 

the enlightenment and civilization of its people. We 
may well u.se an addition that has been made to the 
old quotation, and say that " the price of liberty i.s not 
only eternal vigilance, but constant progress." I shall 
not — sir, I cannot — attempt to speak of the history 
of Cambridge ; for it has been so beautifully and so 
eloquently referred to to-day, and will be again, that I 
had rather pass on to some personal reminiscences 
which have been suggested by the incidents of the day. 
You have heard a great deal said of the great men, the 
marked men, who planted themselves upon the soil of 
Cambridge ; and as I listened to the admirable address 
by the Orator of the Day, I could not forget that I had 
a stronger claim, perhaps, than many who were pres- 
ent, to be a participant in the celebration of this 
anniversary. We may be pardoned, on such an anni- 
versary day, for allusions to private history and associa- 
tions. I could not forget that I had a claim to be here 
and join in this occasion by the right of inheritance ; 
for I could look back and remember that my grand- 
mother was of the fifth generation that were born and 
lived upon this soil, representing the early settlers of 
the Westerly Parish. And as I recall the histor\^ of 
the past that my ancestors were interested in, I re- 
member — the story came to me, as perhaps to many 
here, from an old nurse, Phoebe Bathrick, of West Cam- 
bridge, who was sixty-two years a servant and dear friend 
in our family — the story of the battles of Lexington 
and Concord. Before I was able to read the history, 
we children gathered about her, long years ago, to listen 
to her vivid recital of what that revolutionary year 



THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 101 

witnessed. We were with her when she was awakened 
in the night by the heavy tramp of the Redcoats as 
they passed my grandmother's liome on the road to 
Lexington. We were with her in the morning when 
the children were crowded into the ox-cart, and carried 
down to Spy Pond, away from tlie main street; and we 
were with her again in the day when she went back to 
look at the Redcoats with their glistening bayonets. 
And we went with her to see the dead soldier lying in 
the ditch, and when the sun went down we were taken 
back to the house that had been sacked by the Bi'itish 
troops. All these things, ladies and gentlemen, came 
to my mind as I listened to the oration this afternoon, 
and I felt that I had some right to be here; remember- 
ing that my ancestors had been among the yeomanry 
of this city. 

The speaker before me made some reference to 
quality rather than quantity. I agree with him that it 
is most important that the people of America should 
be true to the ideas which the great and good men first 
planted upon our soil ; but merchants in business to- 
day learn that the necessities of the American mer- 
chant have something to do with quantity and breadth. 
Our fathers could send a single ship, make a single 
voyage in a year, and earn a living ; but the merchant 
to-day must send many ships, and the percentage of 
retui'ns that he may realize from the ventures are very 
small. Our nation requires that eveiything should be 
done upon a great scale. The idea of the government 
is so broad that it takes in all humanity ; and when the 
merchant sends his ship to the uttermost sea to trade, 



102 THE BANQUET AT U.VION HALL. 

and extend our commerce through a wide area, he 
sends also the ideas of a republican government, so 
that the nations that have little of civilization learn 
something of the republic that was founded by the 
fathers who settled in Cambridge, and extended and 
preserved by the soldiers of the last civil war of the 
United States. I was reminded, too, that it seems very 
strange to-day to hear that when the Revolutionary 
War closed, the whole assessed valuation of Massa- 
chusetts was only $11,000,000; and it seems impossible 
to comprehend how heavy Avas the burden that was 
laid upon our State. The State of Massachusetts at 
.the close of the Revolution owed more than her en- 
tire assessed value. The debt of the State was over 
$5,000,000 with accumulated interest, and her propor- 
tion of the national debt was $5,000,000, with accumu- 
lated interest. Yet she paid it all. Contrast her entire 
valuation with the $66,000,000 of taxable property in 
Cambridge to-day, and you realize something of the 
city's growth. As we refer to the truth and the 
honesty of the past in the State of Massachusetts, the}' 
seem to teach a good lesson to some of our sister 
States who to-day talk of repudiation. In regard to 
the commerce of the United States, we shall undoubt- 
edly, as the Collector has said, extend our shipping 
interest so that in a very few years we shall not see 
three hundred foreign steamships sailing across the 
ocean, with only three or four American ships to com- 
pete with them, and to sustain our flag upon the se.a. 
These questions will undoubtedly be settled by wise 
legislation. But as we look back upon the past we 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 103 

must be impressed by the responsibilities and duties 
that rest upon all. As we contemplate the grandeur 
and immensity of the United States as it is to be, as it 
must be, and will be, Ave should strive to build upon 
the truest principles which can be brought to our sup- 
port; we should consult absolute truth rather than 
expediency. 

I cannot close my remarks to-night Avithout making 
some reference to the music of the children that we 
heard at the Theatre this morning. It has been said 
that when 

" Youth, the dream, depnrts, 
It takes something from our hearts, 
And it never comes again." 

I believe that it may be so ; but if there is a charm of 
youth which we lose as we grow older, Ave appreciate 
more keenly the beauty of childhood. We are drawn 
to-day nearer to the children than Ave possibly could 
have been in our earlier years. As I listened to their 
sweet voices and realized their advantages, my heart 
Avas filled to overflowing, and I felt that a fruitful 
lesson had been taught to us and the children by the 
exercises of the day. It seemed to me that the citizens 
who gathered to-day were Avorthy of the citizens of the 
past; that you Avere carrying out the very thought that 
our fathers planted in 1780, Avhen they passed a law 
fining the people if they did not sustain the schools. 
If Ave can continue for the next hundred years as we 
have been during the past, Ave may be sure that Avhen 
the anniversary is celebrated our successors Avill feel as 
proud as Ave do to-day ; and I hope and trust that the 



104 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALE. 

manifest destiny of the United States, founded uj)()n a 
liigher ideal of govei-nment than that of any country 
we liave as yet seen, may not be checked or retarded 
in its growth by the weaknesses or ignorance of our 
generation ; but that we may do all we can to advance 
its interests and prosperity, as those who have pre- 
ceded us in this city have done. 



"The CliLircli, — one of the bulwarks of the republic." 
RESPONSE BY THE REV. ALEXANDER McKEXZIE. I) 1). 

Mi;. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I shall take 
but a few moments of your time at this late hour. But 
it is hard to be brief when there are so man}- things 
which I should like to say. I indulge myself in sev- 
eral hints only. I have been somewhat troubled to-day 
because those who have the most right to enjoy this 
celebration are not here ; or, if they are here, they are 
not seen by our eyes. I have found a cruml:) of com- 
fort in the remarks of the Oi-ator this afternoon, that 
of the two Indians who entered Harvard College only 
one got out. Then the other must still be in some- 
where, though in what part of our domain I do not 
know. Possibly he is with us in this hall, to rejoice in 
the success which has crowned the labors of the men 
and women whose toils he witnessed and enjoyed. I 
have had some consolation also in the presence of our 
revered friend. Dr. Paige, of whom I intended to speak 
before any one else alluded to him. I, too, have re- 
cently been studying his History of Cambridge. But 




JOHN WINTHROP. 



THE BAXQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 105 

I studied the miin himself, and drew upon his large 
learning, long before his book was given to the world. 
He certainly belongs in our time, yet seems a citizen 
of all the time which this community has known, and 
he talks almost as familiarly of those who were here 
two hundred and fifty years ago as of those he met two 
hundred and fifty days ago. We should j^ay our grate- 
ful homage to this distinguished benefactor. There is 
scarcely a book in my library which I value so much 
as his History, in which he has written, on a blank leaf, 
his name and my own. 

The history of Cambridge is peculiarly a history 
of men. We can account for some places by their 
situation, on a great harbor, or a broad river, or 
by a strong waterfall, or over a rich mine. We can 
account for Cambridge only by her men. By men, 
for men, is her story. We are illustrating the familiar 
saying, that it is the third attempt which never fails. 
First, John Winthrop, Thomas Dudley, and their asso- 
ciates planned a town. Little came of that save the 
beo-inniufj;. It was a Kood be<i:innin2-, so far as it was 
anything. By our name we claim alliance with the 
older Cambridge. It was there, possibly within the 
walls of the mother University, that the agreement was 
made to embark for " the Plantation now in hand for 
New England." Winthrop and Dudley were of the 
twelve signers of that compact whose consequence 
was, as it was written, "' God's glory and the Church's 
good." In 16-32 came "Thomas Hooker's Company," 
" The Braintree Company," and in 103-3 came Mr. 
Hooker himself and Samuel Stone. This made the 



106 THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

earliest church here. But the mhiisters and nearly all 
the people, Htraitened for room, passed through the 
woods to make a beginnhig of Hartford. Before they 
left those had come who were to stay. A third begin- 
ning was to be made, which was' to incorporate all which 
remained. The effective start of our history was in 
1636. Then its greatness and permanence fairly be- 
gan. For then Thomas Shepard and his company were 
organized into a churcli, wliich is still here, with a name 
which describes it, the " First Church in Cambridge." 
I think it would be most fitting if the churches which 
trace their lineage to the church of 16.36 should unite 
in 1886 in a celebration of their two hundred and fif- 
tieth anniversary. Thomas Shepard is the hero, the 
patron saint of Cambridge. Let me show to you this 
ancient record of his life. In this small volume, writ- 
ten in crooked letters in crooked lines, traced by his 
own hand, is the expression of his thought and hope, — 
the story of the man. We have nothing else which 
puts us in so close and tangible connection with him. 
This book he has handled ; over its pages he sat for 
hours with parental love. lie transfigured its humil- 
ity with his own nobility. In the church of Armenia, 
I have read, in the ordination of patriarchs, the dead 
hand of Gregory the Illuminator is used. The sover- 
eigns of England are crowned above the Scottish stone. 
It would not be out of place that at every ordination 
in Cambridge the minister should hold this book in his 
hand, or that at liis inauguration every Mayor should 
kiss it loyally. 

It is well that women join in this celebration ; 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 107 

for a woman wrought in the beginning. For what- 
ever Thomas Shepard accomplished he was largely 
indebted to his wife. He met her at Buttercrambe, in 
Yorkshire, at the house of Sir Richard Darley, whose 
kinswoman she was, whose chaplain he was. She 
befriended the silenced man, and when he coidd no 
longer preach in England, she encouraged him to seek 
these shores. " My dear wife did much long to see me 
settled there in peace, and so put me on to it." He is 
described as " a poor, weak, pale-complectioned man." 
I fancy that she was large and strong, with a stout 
heart and firm will, and that she was admirably fitted 
to be his helpmate in a difficult time. She was the first 
woman who was received into the church here after its 
formation, and she lived but a fortnight after she had 
seen her husband settled in peace. The women of 
Cambridge should hold in tender regard the name of 
Margaret Shepard. 

The history of the town has been in keeping with 
its origin, — it has produced men. Harvard College 
was founded that the line of the founders might be 
preserved. They gave generously ; but the gifts were 
for that which was an essential part of their purpose. 
The College was a necessity, not a luxury nor an or- 
nament. They placed the College here, we are told, 
because Thomas Shepard and his M soul-flourishing 
ministry " were here. The plan was deliberately 
formed in all its parts, and with a view to the " conse- 
quence " which had been written down in England. 
The leading industry of Cambridge has been in keep- 
ing with this design. Books belony; with learninu: and 



108 THE BANQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 

liberty. The press is a part of the State and the 
Church. Other industries have grown up around this ; 
but this keeps its jDre-eniinence in the land. Those 
men who were here first designed to be missionaries, 
and to give what they had received to the tribes which 
were here in darkness. Men were to make men. The 
man and the book were to work together. Those 
men are living still. No one knows the precise spot 
where John Harvard Avas laid at his death. Thomas 
Shepard's resting-place is not marked. The elaborate 
inscription which recounts Henry Dunster's virtues lies 
over Jonathan Mitchel's grave ; but the places where 
they lived are known. It is interesting to see that the 
names of the men of the earliest and of later days 
have been given to the streets. In the earliest map of 
the town, dated 1G35, we have Long, Braintree, Water, 
Crooked Streets, Marsh Lane, and Creek Lane. Now 
we have in the same places, Winthrop, Harvard, Dun- 
ster, Eliot, Holyoke, Brattle Streets. Not far removed 
fi'om these we have Shepard. Chauncy, Holmes, Kirk- 
land, Everett Streets, and others. The children should 
learn the meaning of these names, with which they 
are familiar. 

There is much which is suggestive in the successive 
maps of the town. In the map of 1635 the town is 
very like a cradle ; and very fittingly so, for here re- 
ligion, learning, liberty, and all good were to be nur- 
tured. Children were to be reared into men. In the 
map of 1644-55 the town is shaped somewhat like an 
hour-glass, in Dr. Paige's view. Time was passing 
upon the child who had climbed from the cradle. To 



THE BANQUET AT UXION" HALL. 109 

my eye the outline is that of a stout leg encased in 
armor. Bedford is at the knee, Newton at the toe, and 
the Cambridge of to-day covers the instep, the ankle, 
and the heel. Time has changed the child into tlie 
young man, who is strong to stand and strong to march. 
In the latest map Cambridge is a huge butterfly with 
outstretched wings. On its back, to give it weight, that 
it may move surely through the air, sits Harvard Col- 
lege, with her gathered years and the calm assurance 
which belongs to her. The omen is good. The butter- 
fly is the accepted emblem of immortalit3^ Cambridge 
will live. But Cambridge to live must be true to her 
past, true to herself Then she will be beautiful, and 
her strength and honor will increase. We may antici- 
pate the future, for we have one end of it. These 
years are a part of the whole. To-morrow and to-day 
are one. We will use and not consume. So shall we 
abide. 

May I close these hurried words with one or two 
points of improvement ? With all our just boasting 
we have some striking wants. We need a suitable 
building for our public library. We have a fine collec- 
tion of books. We have faithful men and women in 
charge of them. But the narrow chambers which are 
hired for the purposes of the library are a discredit to 
a city Avith our literary pretensions. 

We need also a public hospital. With over fifty 
thousand people, there is no place in the city to which 
a needy person can be taken for medical or surgical 
treatment in sickness, or after an accident, except the 
almshouse. In the year 1879 ninety-two persons were 



110 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

taken from Cambridge to Boston for treatment in the 
Massacliusetts General Hospital alone. We have the 
incorporation of a lio.spital, and funds enough to erect 
a suitable building for its use. Would it not be an ex- 
cellent method of marking this time of celebration to 
provide the money which would maintain an institution 
so greatly needed ? 

I venture but one more practical intimation. We 
are greatly in need of a better system of communica- 
tion with Boston and the regions beyond. We are 
getting accustomed to standing in a horse-car and 
clinging to a strap, not for the convenience of our fel- 
low-sufferers, but for the emolument of the proprietors 
of the road ; but, patient as we are, a change cannot 
be very far off. I came here to-night in a car which 
had just passed the homes of Lowell and Longfellow, and 
which rattled and roared so furiously that, for all pur- 
poses of conversation, we might almost as well have been 
in a boiler factory. With all the discomfort, and peril, 
and expense, and waste of time involved in this weary 
method of travel, it cannot be very long before a de- 
sire for comfort, or a desire to people our unoccupied 
lands, .shall find through the upper air, or on the ground, 
or inider the ground, a better way of getting into our 
city, that its advantages may be enjoyed. / 

I will say no more. I see a long and happy future 
for Cambridge. She will keep faith with the men she 
lauds to-day. She will preserve her inheritance and 
bequeath it better than when she received it. Her 
churches shall be strong; her schools .shall flourish. 
Her industries shall increase. Her homes .shall be 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. Ill 

pleasant ; her streets shall be safe. Her wise men shall 
be teachers ; her poets shall sing. Her influence shall 
more and more extend itself, and her name shall be 
worn with honor. 



" The day we celebrate, and the Orator of the Day." 

RESPONSE BY COL. T. AV. HIGGINSON. 

I never could understand, Mr. Mayor, what was the 
origin of the custom of inviting the Orator of the Day 
to make a second speech at a dinner, after the guests 
are all tired to death of him, unless it be this, that, 
having given him an opportunity to show that he can 
make a speech, it is to give him a chance to abstain 
from making one. I thank you, Mr. President, for 
giving me this added opportunity. One word of ex- 
planation : it was clear at once, when President Eliot 
expressed surprise that his Excellency the Governor 
had omitted to mention the ladies, that, through some 
neglect of the ear, — perhaps some want of full atten- 
tion to the words, — the President did not see that 
his Excellency hud mentioned the ladies in the very 
beginning of his speech, for he began it with the word, 
"fellow-citizens." Moreover, if President Eliot had had 
the good or the ill fortune to accompany his Excellency 
to as many centennial and bi- centennial celebrations 
as I have, he would know that the presence of ladies 
on these occasions has long since become, not the ex- 
ception, but the rule. It is so generally the rule now 
at these public banquets, that I can hardly think of more 



112 THE BAXQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

than one class of them in Cambridge to which it does 
not extend ; and when President Eliot crowns his mag- 
nificent series of reforms for Harvard College by inviting 
ladies to the banquet at Memorial Hall on Commence- 
ment Day also, I for one shall take no offence, and 
shall not stay away. 

I thank him again for his reference to the admirable 
History of Dr. Paige, and I know that Mr. Paige himself 
will not object if I go further back, and thank also the 
memory of the pioneer of Cambridge history, Dr. Abiel 
Holmes, at whose feet I literally sat when I first read 
his History of Cambridge, when I sat as a hoy on the 
floor of his study. He laid the foundation where Dr. 
Paige, with encyclopaidic industry, has perfected the 
details. I still recall the joy Avith which I, " a Cam- 
bridge boy," as the son of old Dr. Holmes said in his 
poem to-day, first read Cambridge history, — not in any 
book, but in the crumbling inscriptions on the stones 
of our burying-ground ; the stones which Holmes him- 
self has inscribed in song. I remember when I, as a 
boy, went with Holmes's " Cambridge Churchyard " in 
my hand, and with other little Cambridge schoolboys 
chose out one by one the stones — the very stones — 
that he had described. 

" Or gnzo upon yon pilhircd stone, 
Tlie empty urn of priile ; 
There stand the Goblet and the Sun, — 

What need of more beside ? 
Where lives the memory of the dead 

Who maile their tomb a toy? 
Whose ashes press tliat nameless bed? 
Go, ask the vilhigo boy!" 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 113 

We village boys could then have told you that that 
stone was the tomb of the once magnificent Vassall 
family of Cambridge, who spurned the necessity of 
placing their names upon their monument, but the 
" goblet and the sun " — Vas-Sol — was enough. And 
near that very stone lay also the traditional grave of 
that lovely Cambridge lady, also of the Vassall femily, 
who was buried, tradition says, with a slave at her head 
and another at her feet. I always thought nothing 
could be more graceful than the opening of Longfellow's 
poem to her, — 

" In the village churchyard she lies ; 
Dust is on her be.iutiful eyes," 

until I heard the remark of a Cambridge lady that 
she did n't see anything so remarkable about that, for 
there was not a pair of beautiful eyes in Cambridge 
that did n't have dust in them all summer. 

But, Mr. Mayor, I am violating my own suggestion, 
as speakers are wont to do. Let me say one thing more, 
and I am done. In preparing for this oration I found 
it necessary to seek a somewhat wider range of study 
than President Eliot has indicated, for it included a 
comparison of recent issues of Cambridge newspapers. 
I was in search of Cambridge antiquity. Now, if an 
event don't get antiquated in a newspaper a w'eek old, 
there must be something very able in the editing. So 
I studied the papers faithfully. I found some valuable 
facts that were old, some that were new to me, and 
some which I think will always remain new. I found 
a good deal of good advice, especially to members elect 



114 THE BAXQUET AT UXION HALL. 

of the Legislature, and in extending my research even 
into the columns of witticism I found one good story 
that struck me as peculiarly applicable to me at the 
present time. The story was of an excellent man who 
was rather deaf, and was walking along the railroad. 
He was run over and killed. And some newspaper 
stated the following morning, that Mr. Jones, being 
deaf, was unfortunately run over and killed ; and that 
it was a remarkable coincidence that a similar accident 
had happened to the same unfortunate gentleman a 
year before in the same place. I am not deaf, al- 
though some of my hearers to-day may have had reason 
to wish that I was dumb ; I am not deaf, but having 
had the unfortunate experience of having to boi'e you 
with a long speech this afternoon, I do not wish to 
renew the same infliction this evening. 

"Among the many wonderful developments and improve- 
ments of our time," said tlie Mayor, " the printing-press 
occupies a most prominent position, and can literally be said 
to be the liaiulmaid of modern civilization. I call upon 
Ex-Mayor IIexry O. Houghton." 

RESPONSE BY THE IIOX. II. O. IIorOHTON. 

Me. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, — It has been 
said that the printing-presses of Cambridge are lineally 
descended from the press of Stephen Diiye. I fear 
this statement cannot be maintained : first, because 
there was a period of from fifty to sixty years when no 
press existed in Cambridge, — a long break in the gene- 
alogy of an ancient family ; second, because, if the 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 115 

proprietor of a prmting-press is properly the printer, 
then this distinction of being the first printer belongs 
to President Dunster <as representing the College. I 
am not sui'e that our fellow-citizen, Mr. Charles Deane, 
who has exploded so many of our supposed historical 
facts and shown them to be only pretty myths, may 
claim that Stephen Dnye had no existence in fact, 
but that his name, indicating the dawning of a new 
light upon this continent, was borrowed from the de- 
vice of a printer who existed seventy-five years be- 
fore him, which represented a sound sleeper, with 
a companion making frantic efforts to awaken him, 
while jjointing to the sun just rising above the hor- 
izon, and exclaiming, "Arise, for it is Day!" The 
wood-cut might just as well have illustrated, in some 
of our primers, the murder of Abel by Cain, for the 
costume was that in vogue before " Adam delved or 
Eve span." How our friend would dispose of the 
Stephen I am not so sure, unless he would regard it 
as a sj'non^m for pei'secution, — and our Stephen suf- 
fered nearly every kind of persecution except stoning. 
As is well known. Rev. Jesse Glover started for New 
England in 1638 with fonts of type and a press, and 
with Stephen Daye as an assistant, for the purpose of 
introducing printing into the infant Colony. Unfortu- 
nately, he died on the voyage ; but his family and the 
press arrived safely. The President of the College, how- 
ever, soon found means of obtaining possession of the 
printing materials, by the same means that many an 
aspiring man takes to become the possessor of an estate, 
namely, by marrying the widow. Stephen Daye was 



116 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

not a good manager or a good printer. Printers a 
hundred years before him did better printing. He 
did not even know how to spell; for we find in his 
Bay Psalm Book that the word " Psalm " has the final 
e on one page and is without it on the opposite page. 

Daye resigned his care of the printing-press after 
about ten years of service, and brought suit against 
the President of Harvard College for £100 for back 
pay. The verdict of the jury could not have afforded 
him much satisfaction, which was, "The jury finds for 
the defendant costs of court." In 1641, two jears after 
he was appointed Manager of the Printing Pre.ss, the 
General Court made him a grant of three hundred 
acres of land, because he was " the first that sett upon 
printing " in the new Colony. Fourteen years after- 
ward this grant was confirmed, and two years later a 
new grant was made to him of •' three hundred acres 
of land in any place not formerly granted by this 
Court." Ten years later the " General Coiu't ordered, 
in answer to the petition of Steven Daye, that the Peti- 
cioner hath liberty to procure of the Sagamore of Nash- 
oway [now Lancaster], by sale or otherwise, 150 acres 
of upland & 20 acres of meadow." But I cannot find 
that his land was ever located, or that he ever derived 
any benefit from it. Daye also seems to have been a 
real-estate speculator, and, like muny such of the present 
day, was often " hard up." We find that he mortgaged 
" twenty-Seaven Acres of land laying in the Bounds of 
Cambridg for the pajmcnt of a cowe and a calfe and 
a two year's old heifier." 

Daye's successor in the management of the press for 



THE BANQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 117 

the College was Samuel Green, who came to Cambridge 
when he was sixteen years old, and for want of houses 
he and his companions slept in empty beer-casks. He 
seems to have been a man of energj' and character, and 
a good accountant. He made, in 1670, an inventory for 
the College,aud valued the materials of the printingoffice 
at £80, — a very low valuation even for that day. Green 
was also a man of substance, town clerk, and a captain of 
militia for thirty years. When too old to march at the 
head of his company, he was carried to the muster- 
field in a chair, to review and exercise his troops. He 
continued for fifty years to manage the press in Cam- 
bridge. At his death, there seemed to be no one to 
succeed him. Green died in 1702. He was the father 
of nineteen children. Many of his descendants have 
been printers in Boston, and a large number of them 
have helped to swell the long list of graduates of 
Harvai'd College. 

During all this time, as I have said, the press appears 
to have been under the charge of the College, and the 
first printer, as the representative of the College, was 
Henry Dunster. The printing-office was in the Presi- 
dent's house. 

The College, also, at that time had so much influence 
with the Legislature that it procured the enactment of 
a law that no printing should be done anywhere in the 
Colonies except at Cambridge. The General Court also 
appointed a board of censorship of the press, of which 
the President of the College was a member. This cen- 
sorship lasted for ninety years, or until 1755, at which 
time the law that printing should be done only in Cam- 



118 THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 

bridge seems to have become a dead letter ; yet so far 
as I can learn the act ne\er was repealed. But imme- 
diately afterwards presses sprang up in different parts 
of the Colonies, which took a prominent part in the dis- 
cussion of the great questions which preceded and 
brought on the Revolution. 



" The town of Cambridge and its founders." 
RESPOX.se by the HOX. CHARLES H. SAUNDERS. 

Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, — After lis- 
tening to the eloquent words of the Orator to-day, we 
must all, I think, feel that in the early settlers of Cam- 
bridge we have an ancestry of which we may well be 
proud. They were highly religious men, remarkable 
for wisdom, prudence, and large foresight. It is pleasr 
ant to-day to look back to those years of small begin- 
ning.?, to the privations and sufferings endured, that 
they might have a larger liberty in their worship, and 
enjoy all the civil rights of Englishmen unmolested. 
They hail left thi'ir home in Old England, had sailed 
across the dreary waste of waters to these shores, and 
in the month of December, 16.30, voted to build here 
a fortified town. In 10-31 tlie settlement was com- 
menced, and a few houses were built. Like the Pil- 
grims at Plymouth, hardly had they provided a shelter 
for their families before they began to build a meeting- 
house, which was finished in 1032. We know but little 
of this l)uil(ling, t)ut it was pr()1)al)ly built of logs, and 
had a thatched roof, and at first the people were sum- 



THE BANQUET AT UNIOX HALL. 119 

moned there by the beating of a drum. In 1G33 
Thomas Hooker was chosen pastor. In 1635 Thomas 
Shepard arrived, and on the first day of February, 1G36, 
the first permanent church was organized, in the pres- 
ence of a great assembly of the principal men of the 
Colony. Mr. Hooker having decided to remove to Con- 
necticut, Mr. Shepard wa.s chosen minister. He is 
described as a weak, pale-complexioned man, of unusual 
talent and piet}-. His annual salary was £70, payable 
in corn at the market-rate. In those days it was not un- 
common to turn the hour-glass twice in the delivery 
of a sermon. 

Within five years of the settlement, the College 
was proposed; fearing, without it, "an illiterate pos- 
terity, when their ministers were laid in the dust." 
It was located liere principally to receive the religious 
ministrations of Mr. Shepard. The town gave for its 
use two and three quarter acres of land, in the north- 
easterly corner of the present College-yard. The first 
record of a school-house being built is in 1647, when 
President Dunster and Edward Goffe entered into an 
agreement for a stone building, to be erected on the 
westerl}' side of Holyoke Street, the expense of the 
same to be paid in wheat, corn, oats, and pease, at the 
current rate of the market. Master Corlet taught the 
school for more than forty years. The t_pwn was much 
exposed to the assaults of Indians, and in 1632 Gov- 
ernor Dudley enclosed one thousand acres by a stockade 
for its protection, at a cost of £60, which was assessed 
upon the Colony. In 1639 the first printing-press on 
this continent was set up here. In 1650 the first ship 



120 THE BAXQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

was built. In 1G60 the Great Bridge, so called, was 
built at the foot of "Wood Street (now Brighton). In 
1668 the famous Eliot Indian Bible was printed here. 
The town continued to grow slowly Ijut steadily for the 
next century, furnishing its quota of men and money 
for the Indian wars in which the Colony was engaged. 
For the first one hundred and fifty years it acquired a 
population of about sixteen hundred, the town embrac- 
ing the present territory of the towns of Arlington and 
Brighton. 

Cambridge took early action in the troubles of the 
Revolution. In 1765 the town instructed its Repre- 
sentatives to use their utmost endeavors for the repeal 
of the Stamp Act ; and also voted, " That this resolve 
should be recorded in the Town Book, that the chil- 
dren yet unborn may see the desire which their ances- 
tors had for their freedom and happiness." On the 
imposition by England of a duty on teas imported to 
America, the town in 1773, after passing several re- 
solves, closed with the following : " That this town can 
no longer stand an idle spectator, but is ready at the 
shortest notice to join Boston in any measures that may 
be thought proper to deliver ourselves and posterity 
from slavery." In 1775 Cambridge had two compa- 
nies of minute-men in action, April 19, at Lexington. 
July 2, General Washington arrived, and took com- 
mand July 3, and Cambridge Connnon became the first 
camping-ground of the Continental army. In 1776 the 
town voted to support Congress in a declaration of inde- 
pendence, with their lives and fortunes. In 1780 the 
convention to form a State constitution was held here. 



THE BANQUET AT UXION HALL. 121 

To every call of the country Cambridge has always 
promptly responded. In 184G Cambridge became a city 
by an act of incorporation. Our city furnished more 
than four thousand men for the war of the Rebellion, 
of whom more than four hundred laid down their lives 
for their country. Cambridge has the honor of having 
furnished the first volunteer company for this war, and 
expended for war purposes more than $450,000, be- 
sides $243,000 for aid to the families of the soldiers. 
In 1869 and 1870 the city erected the beautiful granite 
monument on its Common, " to commemorate the men 
who gave \\p their lives in the war for the maintenance 
of the Union." 

The harvest has been so thoroughly gleaned to-day 
that I have only touched upon a few of the leading 
events of our history. I think I voice the feeling of 
the community when I here express their thanks to 
the City Council for their unanimous action in pro- 
viding for the celebration of this two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary. We have seen that the found- 
ers of Cambridge were composed of the most emi- 
nent men of the Colony. Winthrop, Dudley, and Brad- 
street became governors of Massachusetts, and Haynes 
governor of Connecticut. Although two hundred and 
fifty years have passed since the settlement of Cam- 
bridge, yet to this city government belongs the honor 
of having fii-st publicly recognized this great event of 
1630 in our history. It is also a matter of congratu- 
lation that, accompanying this celebration, this City 
Council has wisely determined to erect permanent me- 
morials on the various localities which have become 



122 THE BANQUET AT UXIOX HALL. 

historic in oui" city. You have already marked the 
spot where stood the first church, on Dunster Street, 
where the pious Shepard preached often in the j^resence 
of Winthrop and Dudley, where the first synod of all 
the churches of the Colony met in 1637, and whore was 
held the first College Connnencement, in 1G42. Granite 
t:il)lets suitaljly inscribed will mark the home of Thomas 
Dudley, on Dunster Street; the site of the first school- 
house, on Ilohoke Street; the site of General Putnam's 
headquarters, on Inman Street ; the site of Fort Put- 
nam, on Otis and Fourth Streets, from which was fired 
the ball that lodged in the old Brattle Street Church in 
Boston ; and the spot where four citizens of Cambridge 
were killed, Api'il 19, 1775, on North Avenue, near 
the corner of Spruce Street, on their return from Lex- 
ington. The spot where Hooker, Shepard. and Mitchell 
lived, within tlie limits of the College-yard, will be 
marked, upon the granite building which occupies the 
site, by the Corporation of Harvard College. These 
historic memorials will make this administration a 
prominent one, and will be permanent educators to 
young and old, and to the generations that will come 
after us. They will also encourage further adornment 
of our city by private generosity. I trust the time is 
not far distant when a bronze statue of Stephen Daye, 
the first printer of Cambridge, in his Puritanic costume, 
will be placed in Harvard Square l)y the numerous 
members of his craft, the printers of Cambridge. Al- 
ready there is some encouragement that a statue of one 
of the prominent founders of Cambridge will at no dis- 
tant day grace our city. May we not profit by the 



THE BANQUET AT UNION HALL. 123 

injunction of a sagacious statesman of old, "If you 
would have 3'our city loved by its citizens, you must 
make your city lovely." 

It is our good fortune to live in the best days of our 
republic and in the best epoch of our city. We are 
to-day in the full enjoyment of the institutions of gov- 
ernment, religion, and learning which have been handed 
down to us through these centuries. Let us remember 
that upon us rests the responsibility of preserving and 
transmitting to the generations of the future, unim- 
paired, these institutions which we now enjoy ; and 
may those who shall celebrate the three hundredth 
anniversary of our city be able to reiterate this senti- 
ment, which I am sure we all feel to-day, — The lines 
have fallen unto us in pleasant places ; yea, we have 
a goodly heritage. 



COHHESPONDENCE. 



Department of State, Washington, Dec. 21, 1880. 
Dear Sir, — Tlie invitation to be present at the commemora- 
tion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of tlie settle- 
ment of Cambridge has been duly received, and it is with regret 
that I find that my official duties render it impossible for me to 
be in Cambridge upon so interesting an occasion. 

I am yours very truly, 

W. M. EVARTS. 
Hon. J. M. W. Hall, Cambridge, Mass. 



■Washington, Dec. 21, 1880. 
My dear Sir, — I regret that I shall not be able to be present 
at your interesting celebration on the 28th. I should like to listen 
to Colonel Higginson, who is alw.ays so well worth hearing, and 
to show my reverence for your venerable town, with whose paths 
and fields my own ancestors were familiar more than two cen- 
turies ago. 

I am yours very truly, 

GEORGE F. HOAR. 
Hon. J. il. \V. Hall, Mayor of Cambridge. 



Mentor, Ohio, Dec. 16, 1880. 
Dear Sir, — Your letter of the 13th instant, inviting me to 
attend the exercises commemorative of the two hundred and fif- 
tieth anniversary of the settlement of Cambridge, came duly to 
hand. I greatly regret that my engagements are such as to make 
il impossible for me to be present on that interesting occasion. 
Thanking you for your invitation, I am 
Very truly yours, 

J. A. GARFIELD. 
Hon. J. M. W. Hall, Cambridge, Mass. 



CORRESPOKDENCE. 125 



Ameseurt, 27th, 12th Mo., 1880. 
Hon. J. M. W. Hall. 

Dear Feiend, — The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
the town of Cambridge is an occasion of exceptional importance, 
and I should be happy to be present at its celebration. But my 
health at this season of the year does not permit me to gratify 
my inclination. The loss will be wholly mine, for I could add 
nothing to the interest of an occasion reviving the memory of a 
long succession of Cambridge worthies, illustrious in science, litera- 
ture, philosophy, and statesmanship ; and which cannot fail to call 
back to her from their posts of usefulness and honor the widely 
scattered sons of her great University. If one of the most emi- 
nent of them is necessarily detained at the Court of St. James as 
the representative of his country, she will still have with her 
scholars and poets beloved and honored throughout the civilized 
world. 

Sharing in the high regard which every true son of Massachu- 
setts must feel for the city of classic renown and patriotic mem- 
ories, I am 

Truly thy friend, 

JOHN G. WHITTIER. 



BosTOK, Dec. 18, 1880. 
The Hon. James M. W. Hall, Mayor. 

Dear Sir, — I am greatly honored and obliged by the invita- 
tion of the city of Cambridge for the '28th instant. No city on 
our continent is better entitled to commemoration than that over 
which you preside. Its Iiistory for two hundred and fifty years, 
as narrated by my venerable friend, Dr. Paige, is fidl of interest. 
As the chosen seat of a college only si-x years after the Massachu- 
setts company arrived here ; as the headquarteis of Washington 
when he first took command of the American army, 1775 ; as* the 
home of Longfellow and Lowell and the birtliplace of Holmes; 
and as the occasional residence of Kirkland and Quincy and Ever- 
ett and Sparks and Agassiz, and of so many others who have been 
the lights and leaders of the University, — it has claims to consid- 
eration and celebrity in every period of its e.xistence. Meantime 
no son of Harvard among its thousands of alumni can ever think 



126 COERESPOXDENCE. 

of Cambridge but ns of a second birthplace. I would most gladly 
listen to the commemorative discourse of Colonel Iligginson, and 
witness the children's festival in the beautiful Sanders Theatre, 
and assist at the banquet in Union Hall, but I am compelled to 
deny myself, and I can only offer to the city my hearty congratu- 
lations on the occasion, with my grateful acknowledgments of the 
compliment of the invitation. 

Believe me, dear Mr. Mayor, very truly youi-s, 

ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 



Boston, Nov. 5, 1880. 
My deak Sir, — I feel highly complimented by the invitation 
of the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of the two 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Cambridge 
to deliver a poem on that occasion. I must request the Commit- 
tee to add another favor by excusing me from taking an active 
part in the public e.vcrcises of the day. I love my birtiiplace, and 
especially all that centres around the University which is its pride 
and ornament. A little more than a year ago I de]ivere<l a poem, 
since published, in which I recall the five semi-centennial ])eriods 
counted backwards from that time to the days when Cambridge 
was a part of the almost unbroken wilderness, tenanted or roamed 
over by the living representatives of the primitive stone age. 
This must stand as my tribute to the past history of my native 
town. I wish it were more worthy of its subject, but it could be 
at best but an autumn flower — a chrysanthemum and not a rose. 
I have not been backward in doing what I could to add to the 
])leasures of many public occasions. The time has come when it 
is more grateful to me to listen than to be listened to, and it is due 
to others as well as to myself that I should claim the jirivilege of 
silence, which I trust will be cheerfully, if not thankfully, granted 
nie by my kind fellow-citizens. 

I am, dear sir, yours very truly and respectfully, 

OLIVER AVEXDELL HOLMES. 
To the Hon-. James M. W. H.ili-, Mayor of the City of Cambridge. 



CORRESPONDENX'E. 127 

Legation of the United States, London, Dec. 5, 1880. 

My deab Mr. Mayor, — At past sixty a man is apt to muse 
over the question, in what measure and in what manner life has 
been of worth to him ; and to me your letter seemed to give a very 
sufficient answer, for I can conceive of nothing sweeter or more 
consoling, as one draws nigli to old age, than to be remembered 
kindly by one's fellow-townsmen and neighbors. During my life 
Cambridge h;is grown from a town of three thousand to a city of 
more than fifty thousand souls, but I am sure you will pardon me 
for saying that it is the old town, with its homelier and closer (I 
will not s.ay narrower) interests, that is dearest to my memory. 
Tliere 1 was born ; there I have had the good foitune to jiass my 
life ; there my most precious friendships have been won and have 
continued unbroken even by death. I trust that I may never 
bring discredit on my birthplace, and that my dust may be permit- 
ted to mingle lovingly with its own. It must be a good soil that 
could bring forth or sustain such men and women as I remember. 
To some of them I may only allude, but I cannot help mentioning 
two good men and good citizens, the late Mr. Royall Morse and 
the late Mr. John Sweetman, one of them a born and the other 
an adopted child of the town. I should be very glad to be with 
you in celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth birthday of Cam- 
bridge, but must content myself with sending my warmest good 
wishes and felicitations. In the life of mankind the period is 
brief, but in the history of the Now World it is long and fruitful, 
stretching from the primitive forest to the occupation of the 
better part of a continent by what is destined to be (if we are wise 
and worthy of our high trust) the greatest and most beneficent 
Commonwealth the world has ever seen. In that history Cam- 
bridge has played no unworthy or inconspicuous part. As I 
think of the dear old town, so far away in space, so near in 
thought, I find myself repeating, — 

" Where'er I roam, wliatever climes I see, 
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee." 

I remain, my dear Mr. Mayor, with many thanks for your kind 
remembrance of me, 

Very sincerely yours, 

J. R. LOWELL. 



APPENDIX. 



1 



MEMORIAL TABLETS IN CAMBRIDGE.' 



BY THE HON. CHARLES H. SAUNDERS. 

THE city of Cambridge recently celebrated, Dec. 28, 1880, 
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its settlement. 
Winthrop, Dudley, Bradstreet, and Haynes, all of whom became 
governors of Massachusetts, were among the settlers. Hooker, 
Shepard, and Mitchell were the earlier ministers, and all were 
eminent men. Shepard was a man of marked ability and piety. 
The desire to have the College enjoy his supervision and re- 
ligious ministrations, it is supposed, was the principal reason for 
locating it in Cambridge. The town and the College, so early asso- 
ciated, have grown up together, and the former has become largely 
historic, while the latter has become widely celebrated. The City 
Council has recently designated some of the most prominent his- 
toric localities, and erected five granite tablets appropriately in- 
scribed. 

On the westerly side of Dunster Street, at the north corner of 
Mount Auburn Street, where was built thejirst Meeting-house, it 
has placed the following inscription, on the grdnitc foundation of 
the house now standing on this lot: — 

Site of the 

First Meetixg-house in Cambridge, 

Erected A.D. 1632. 

This meeting-house was a plain and simple structure, probably 
built of logs, and had a thatched roof. Tlic congregation at firt^t 
were called together by the beating of a drum. Here preached 

'■ Reprinted from The Harvard Register, published by Moses King. 



132 



APPEXDIX. 



the gifted Hooker for two years, who was styled " the light of the 
western churches," and ttie pious Thomas Shepard for thirteen 
years. Here in 1637 met the first synod of tlie churches in the 
Colony, where were gathered probably the whole body of the 
teaching elders and learned divines in New England, and in this 
house in 1642 were held the first College Commencement ex- 
ercises. 

Granite tablets have been erected by the city at the following 
points of interest. 

On the westerly side of Dunster, corner of South Street, with 
the following insciiption : — 



r-^ r'\'r 




Dudley was one of the most active of the founders, a genuine 
Puritan, and one of the first to build a hous^ here, which he 
occupied until 1636. He was elected Governor for four years, 
Deinity-Governor for thirteen, and Assistant for eight years, 
and was Major-General of all the forces in 1644. His life was 
largely devoted to tlie public service. He removed to Ipswich, 
and afterwards to Roxbury, where he died, July 31, 1653, aged 
seventy-six years. 



APPEXDIX. 



13? 



On the westerly side of Holyoke Street, between Harvard and 
Mount Auburn Streets, is a tablet with the following inscription : — 




President Dunster and Edward Goffe entered into an agreement 
for a stone school-house to be built here in 1647 on land then 
owned by Mr. Dunster. The walls for the first story were to 
be one foot and a half thick, and tlie jambs of the firejolace to 
be ten feet wide. The cost of the building was to be paid in 
wheat, rye, corn, and pease, at the current rate. Johnson, in his 
"Wonder-working Providence," speaks of this school in 1643 as 
follows : " By the side of the Colledge is a faire Grammar Schoole, 
for the training up of young schollars, and fitting of them for 
Academical leaniing, that still as they are judged ripe, they may 
be received into the Colledge of this Schoole." Elijah Corlet set- 
tled here in 1643, and was immediately appointed teacher of this 
Grammar School, which he taught for more than forty years. The 
Indian scholars who were intended for the College were also 
under his charge. He is styled by Mather "that memorable old 
schoolmaster in Cambridge, from whose education our College and 
country have received so many of its worthy men." Pie resided 
on the easterly side of Dunster Street, between Mount Auburn and 
Winthrop Streets, and died Feb. 25, 1687, aged seventy-eight. A 
school was kept on this spot until 1769, when it was removed to the 



134 



APPENDIX. 



southerly side of Garden Street, a sliort distance north of Appian 
Way, and there continued until about 1838. 

On the westerly side of Inman Street, between Main and Har- 
vard Streets, is the following : — 




It was the mansion-house of Ral]ih Imiian, a retired merchant 
of Boston, who was a Royalist. lie kept his coach and liveried 
servants for state occasions, and the Army and Xavy officers of 
his Majesty often rode out here to dine or sup. Innian was ar- 
rested in 1776, and his mansion passed into the custody of the 
Provincial Congress, who assigned it to General Putnam, then 
commanding the centre of the American ])osition. It was a large 
square house, three stories high, with a pitched roof, of plain ex- 
terior, but, by reason of its situation in a spacious lawn, had an 
ap])earance of thrift and hospitality. In the field in the rear were 
encamped General Putnam's regiment and most of the Connecti- 
cut troops, in 1775. It commanded the best view of Boston in 
the front, and could not have been better situated for General 
Putnam's daily military observations. 



APPENDIX. 



135 



At the corner of Otis and Fourth Streets, in the wall of tlie 
Putnam Scliool-house, has been placed a large granite slab with 
the following inscription : — 



.-xitr 




JCi 



^^-fvH^ 




ji, PUTN AM SCH OOL 

SITE or 

rORT PUTNAM i 

I DECEMBER^ 1775 ' W] i' 

IdURINQ the SIEGEJ of boston 



This fortification was thrown up by a detachment of three hun- 
dred men under the direction of General Putnam, in December, 
1775. It was one of the best devised and strongest forts in 
Cambridge, was mounted with eighteen and twenty-four pounders 
and a thirteen-inch brass mortar, and had a covered line of com- 
munication built to the marsh. Its purpose was to serve as a 
menace to Boston, and it was built within a half-mile of a British 
man-of-war, which kept up a brisk cannonade with round and 
grape shot during the prosecution of the work. Owing to the 
frozen condition of the ground and a heavy fall of snow, it was a 
work of much difficulty, and taxed severely the patience and 
courage of General Putnam. From this fort was fired the ball 
which lodged in the old Brattle Street Cluirch in Boston. 

Tliis fortification, owing to its ])roximity to the town of Boston, 
was regarded as highly important, in case an attack should be 
made on this British stronghold. "It will be possible," wrote 
Colonel Moylan, " to bombard Boston from Lechmere Point. 
Give us )iowder and authority and Boston can be set in flames." 
General Heath also wrote : " This battery much annoyed the 
British." A British officer, December 31st, says: "If the rebels 
can complete the new battery which they are raising, this town 
[Boston] will be on fire about our ears a few hours after. If 
we cannot destroy the rebel battery by our guns, we must march 
out and take it sword in hand." 



136 



APPENDIX. 



On the westerly side of North Avenue, corner of Spruce Street, 
is a grauite tablet with this inscription : — 




The names of these men were Isaac Gardner, of Brookline, 
John Hicks, Moses Ricliardson, and William Marcy, of Cambridge. 
Hicks, Richardson, and Marcy were buried in one grave, as they 
fell, in the old Town Burying Ground opposite tiie Common, and 
in 1870 the city of Cambridge erected a suitable monument to 
their memory over the spot of their burial. The flank guard of 
the l)ritish troops was posted half a mile from tlie main body, and 
surprised them in the rear, and all were killed. 

Three other citizens of Cambridge, Jason Russell, Jabcz AVy- 
man, and Jason Winship, were killed on the other side of Monot- 
omy River, in the present town of Arlington, over whose remains 
a monument was erected in the Menotomy burial-ground many 
years ago. 

The s])ot where Hooker, Shcpard, Mitchell, President Leverett, 
and the Professors Wigglesworth, father and son, lived, on H.ar- 
v.ard Street, is within the limits of the College yard, and the 
College Corporation have placed tiie following inscriptions on the 
granite building, Boylston Hall, which occupies the site: — 




THE WASHINGTON ELM AND THE SHEl'AKD MEMOKIAL CHURCH. 



APPEXDIX. 137 

Here was the HoJiESTEAD of Thomas Hooker, 1633-3G, 

First Pastor at I^ewtown. 

Thomas Shepard, 1636-49, Jonathan Mitchell, 1650-GS, 

First and Second Ministers of the First Church, 

Cambridge. 

John Leverett, 1696-172i, President of Harvard 

College. 

Edward Wigglesworth, 1726-68, First Hollis Professor 

OF Divinity, and Edward Wigglesworth, 1768-94, 

Second Hollis Professor of Divinity. 

In the original distribution of lands in Cambriilge this lot was 
assigned to the Rev. Tliomas Hooker. It was sold to the Presi- 
dent and Fellows of Harvard College in 1794. In regard to this 
historic spot, the Rev. Lucius R. Paige very justly remarks : 
" Such were the owners and occup.ants of this famous homestead 
for the space of one liundred and sixty years, until it ceased to be 
private property. It may not improperly be regarded as holy 
ground, consecrated by the prayers of many precious saints." 

The City Council, about fifteen years ago, placed a granite tablet 
beneath the Washington Elm, to commemorate this shrine of the 
American Revolution, on which is placed this inscription : — 

Under this Tree 

Washington 

First took command 

OF the 

American Army, 

July 3d, 1775. 

The following description of this event is found in Lossing's 
"Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution" : — 

"On the morning of the third of July, 1775, at about nine 
o'clock, the troops at Cambridge were drawn up in order upon the 
Common to receive the Commander-in-Chief. Accompanied by 
the General Officers of the Army who were present, Washington 
walked from his Quarters to the Great Elm Tree, that now stands 
at the north end of the Common, and under the shadow of its 
broad covering, stepped a few paces in front, made some remarks, 
drew his sword, and formally took command of the Continental 
Army. That was an auspicious act for America." 



1630. CAMBRIDGE. 1880. 



' I "HE following epitome of the history of Cambridge was 
published in The Boston Herald several weeks prior 
to the celebration of the anniversary : — 

Ten years after the landing of the Plymouth Pilgrims, and 
about tliree months after the settlement of Boston, Governor John 
Winthrop (whose statue has recently been erected in Scollny 
Square) and Thomas Dudley, Deputy-Governor, with the advice 
of a Bonrd of Assistants, thought it advisable to establish in the 
vicinity of the adjacent settlements " a fortified place." Charles- 
town, Roxbury, and Watertown had been already settled. In the 
early part of December, 1630, a site was selected upon the " Neck " 
between Boston and Ro.xbury; but this plan was abandoned, and 
after several meetings in Boston, Roxbury, and AV.-itertawn, it 
was resolved, on the 28th of December, "to build at a place a mile 
east of W.'itertown, near the Charles River, the following spring, 
.and to winter there the next year ; that so, by our examples, atul 
by removing the ordnance and munitions thither, all who were 
able might be drawn thither, and such as shall come to us here- 
after, to their advantage, be compelled so to do ; and so, if (iod 
would, a fortified town might there grow up, the place fitting 
reasonably well thereto." In pursuance of tiiis resolve, in the 
sjjring of 1631, the first buildings were erocte<l by Governor Win- 
throp, Deputy-Governor Dudley, and a few others. The Governor, 
however, soon became discontented, and took down his frame 
house and removed with it to Shawmut (Boston), across the river, 
where he again set it up; but the others remained. The de])arturc 
of Governor Winthrop was a keen disappointment to Dejiuty- 
Governor Dudley, but he assumed the leadership of the "newe 



APPENDIX. 139 

towne," that being the only designation given it. The names of 
tliose who remaineJ witli him are not known. There is no list of 
inhabitants extant until after the " Braintree Company " arrived 
in the summer of 1632, except this memorandum on the title-]Mge 
of the town records : " The Towne Book of Newtowne. Inhab- 
itants tliere — Mr. Tho. Dudley, Esq., Mr. Symon Bradstreet, Mr. 
Edmond Lockwood, Mr. Daniell Patrike, John Poole, Wm. Silen- 
cer, John Kirman, Symon Sackett." The w-ork of improvement 
began immediately. In June, 1631, Mr. Jolin Maisters, or Masters, 
having undertaken " to make a passage from Charles Ryver to the 
newe towne, 12 foote broad and 7 foote deep," he was promised 
satisfaction by the authorities of Boston according to the expense 
incurred, and in the following July the sum of £30 was levied ujion 
the surrounding towns, the " newe towne " being exempt from the 
tax. This canal was constructed by the enlargement of a natural 
creek, traces of which still exist on the westerly side of the College 
AVharf, from the Charles River nearly to South Street. From 
this point it extended along the edge of South and Eliot Streets 
to Brattle Street, wiiere a footbridge and causeway were made. In 
February, 1632, the sum of £70 was levied upon the surrounding 
towns for the building of a "pallysadoe" around the "newe 
towne." The palisade was built. It commenced at Brick Wharf 
(originally called Windmill Hill), and ran along the northerly side 
of the present Common in Ward 1, through what was then a 
thicket, being now " Jarvis Field," and the land adjacent. It 
cannot be traced further. In March the bounds of the " newe 
towne "' between Charlestown and Watertown were defined by 
order of the Court of Assistants, and later in the same mouth the 
town took action requiring that every one who owned any part in 
the paled land should keep the pales in good and sufficient repair, 
and if it happen to have any defect, he should mend the same with- 
in three days after notice, or pay a fine of ten shillings. The 
course of this ji.ale or fence was from the College yard, extend- 
ing easterly to the junction of Ellsworth Avenue with Cambridge 
Street, to the line between Cambridge and Charlestown (now 
Somerville), at its angle on Line Street, near Cambridge Street ; 
thence following that line to the creek a few rods easterly from 
the track of the Grand Junction Railroad. Beginning again at 
the point first mentioned, the palisade extended southerly to the 



140 APPEXDIX. 

marsh near the junction of Holyoke Place with Mount Auburn 
Street. In tlie following August there was an accession to the 
" newe towne" settlement from England, by Rev. Mr. Hooker, 
who brought with him a considerable number of people, and a 
meeting-house with a bell had been erected on what is now Dun- 
ster Street. That part to the eastward, now known as East Cam- 
bridge and Cainbridgeport, was then called under the general 
name of the " Neck," and consisted of woodland, pasture, swamp, 
and marsh. The upland and marsh at East Cambridge went by 
the name of " Graves, his neck." The " newe towne " was com- 
posed of a dozen streets in the space that is now bounded by 
Harvard, Brattle, Eliot, South Holyoke, and Bow Streets, tliis 
space being enclosed in a paling. Along the river, soutlierly, was 
a succession of marshes, the tract now bounded by North Avenue, 
Garden, and Linna;an Streets being set apart as a "cow common," 
this being the present Common in which a soldiers' monument has 
been erected. In 1633 the first municipal regulations were estab- 
lished in relation to obtaining leave to build himses, the forbidding 
of the building of wooden chimneys, and whoever felled a tree 
should not allow it to remain across the highway, and that each 
inhabitant should keep in good order that part of the highway 
"against his own ground." A windmill for grinding corn was 
erected on " Windmill Hill," in the vicinity of what is now the 
foot of Ash Street, the site of the old gas-works of the Cambridge 
Gaslight Company. This and the meeting-house were the first 
public buildings. Town-meetings were held and a constable was 
appointed, and afterward a surveyor, who had charge uf the high- 
ways. In the early part of 1G34 seven townsmen were appointed 
to look after the public welfare, and three more surveyors were 
added. The principal streets were Braintree Street (now Harvard 
Street and Harvard Scjuare), Spring Street (now Mount Auburn 
Street), Long Street (now Winthrop Street), Marsh Lane (now 
South and part of Eliot Street), Creek Lane (now Brattle Square 
and part of Eliot Street), Wood Street (now Brighton Street), 
Water Street (now Dunster Street), and Crooked Street (now 
Holyoke Street). Tliere were, besides, various highways, the 
" highway to Charlestown," or " Charlestown ]iatli," being the 
present Kirkland Street, the "highway to Watertown," through 
what is now Brattle and Mason Streets, the " highway to Menot- 



APPENDIX. 141 

oniy," now North Avenue, and severnl others. There were be- 
tween forty and fifty houses centred about the rrleeting-lionse on 
Dunster Street, the population being a few hundred souls. In May, 
1634, Mr. Dudley was chosen Governor in place of Mr. Winthrop, 
and in August following the Court assembled in the "newe towne." 
In 1636 a portion of Mr. Hooker's company, on account of dis- 
sensions, and after great opposition and discussion, removed to 
Connecticut. In order to induce them to remain the town was 
enlarged, and Brookline, Brighton, and tiie present Newton were 
added, but without the desired effect, as they insisted upon their 
depaiture. At this time, fortunately. Rev. Thomas Shepard, with 
a large company, arrived from England, and took the place of tlie 
departed company. Then the territory of the " newe towne " was 
again enlarged and extended eight miles into the country on the 
north, embracing all of what is now Arlington and most of Lex- 
ington. In 1642— 14 the boundary was still further extended, and 
included Bedford and Billerica, its length being about twenty- 
five miles, and its width, at the point of original settlement, 
scarcely above one mile. As the colony grew older, one town 
after another of the enhirged territory was eliminated, — Billerica, 
in 1665; Newton, or*Cambri(lge Village, as it was called, in 1691 ; 
Lexington, formerly known as ''The Farms," in 1713; West Cam- 
bridge, originally Menotomy, now Arlington, in 1807 ; and Brigh- 
ton, once called Little Cambridge, in 1807, thus reducing the town 
to about its original limits. In 1636-37 Rev. Mr. Shepard organ- 
ized the first permanent church in Cambridge, the society still 
being in existence, under the name of the Shepard Memorial 
Church, having its place of worship at the corner of Mason and 
Garden Streets. Town-meetings were held upon each first Mon- 
day in the month, nine men being chosen as " townsmen," and 
various laws were enacted and entered upon the town book, one 
of which was, "that, whosoever entertains any stranger into the 
town, if the congregation desire it, he shall s^t ,the town free of 
them again within one month after warning given them, or else 
he shall pay 19 shillings 8 pence unto the townsmen as a fine 
for his default, and as much for every month as they shall there 
remain." 

On the 28th of October, 1636, the General Court had agreed to 
give £400 toward a school or college, whereof £200 was to be paid 



142 APPENDIX. 

the following year, and £-J00 when tlie work was finished, the 
Court to appoint when and wliat buikling. In November, 1637, 
tlie Court selected " Newtowne" as the place for the Collesje, and 
in May, 1638, tlie town gave two and two-thirds acres of land, 
being the westerly part of tlie present College enclosure, for the 
purpose. In September, 1638, by the will of Rev. John Harvard, 
the sum of £1500 was bequeathed to the College. In May of the 
same year it was ordered by the Court " that Newtowne shall 
henceforward be called Cambridge," and in Marcli, 1630, the coiiit 
ordered that the College agreed upon to be built should be called 
Harvard. Rev. Henry Dunster was the first President, and under 
his administration the first class was graduated, which consisted of 
nine " young men of good ho])e." In 1650 the Court granted the 
College a charter, under which it became a corjwration under the 
title of "The President and Fellows of Harvard College." After 
the College was established, Cambridge grew and assumed con- 
siderable importance. Wiien the county lines were made it 
became the shire town of Middlesex County, and the buildinc of 
a jail and court-house soon followed. A ferry was established 
across Charles River at Charlestown, tlie jn^jfits of whicli were 
given to the College, which was in the constant receipt of gifts of 
money, lumber, live-stock, etc. The first ])rinting-press known 
in the Englisli Colonies of North America was set u]) soon after 
the College was inaugurated, tlie following item being found upon 
the earliest records of this institution : " Mr. Joss Glover gave to the 
College a font of printing letters, and some gentlemen of Amster- 
dam gave towards furnishing of a printing-press with letters, £49 
and sometliing more." Rev. Mr. Glover was an English dissenter, 
and in 1638 he engaged Steiihen Daye as printer, and embarked 
on the ship John for New England, Daye and his family being 
passengers on the same vessel. Mr. Glover died upon the ]iassage, 
but the rest arrived at Cambridge with the press and ty]>e, and 
for forty years all the printing done in America was at Cambridge. 
The press was ]iut up in the house of President Dunster, which 
was, as far as can be ascertained, on Ilolyoke Street, nearly op- 
posite the place where the old printing establishment formerly 
occupied by John Wilson & Son now stands. In 1647 the elder 
Daye was succeeded by his son Matthew, and he was, in 1610, fol- 
lowed by Samuel Green, who came over with Governor Winthrop 



APPEXDIX. 143 

at the age of sixteen years, and was one of the original settlers. The 
first printed work in America was the " Freeman's Oath." It was 
upon the face of a half-slieet of small paper, and bears the imprint, 
" Printed by S. Daye, 1639." Then followed several other works, 
amiing which was " The Book of the General Lawes and Libertyes 
concerning the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts." About one 
hundred works bear the Cambridge imprint prior to the year 
1700, the chief of which is the Bible translated into the Indian 
language by John Eliot, a copy of which is now in the library at 
Harvard College, the following being a transcript of the title- 
page :— 

Mamuffe 

Wunneetupanatatnwe 

UP— BIBLUxAI GOD 
Naneefwe 

NUKKONE TEST.VMENT 

Kah work 

WUSKU TESTAMEXT 

Three years were occupied in the ]irinting of this Bible, one 
sheet a week passing through the press. There is a story extant 
that Eliot, in translating the word" church," fell into an error, 
and used a word in the Indian dialect which signified " eel-pot," 
which, if true, must have given rise to astonishment to all the 
]iious Indians who sought consolation from the book. There 
was a considerable number of Indians, and large tracts of land 
were purchased of them by the settlers, the consideration, as 
shown by the records in the Middlesex Registry of Deeds at East 
Cambridge, being " strings of wampum," clothing, powder and 
ball, etc. Mr. Elijah Corlet was the first schoolmaster of the 
town. He was a graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford, England, 
the house in which he first taught being situated on Holyoke 
Street, near the dwelling of President Dunster.) He had several 
Indian pupils, one of whom had the name of Caleb Cheeshahteau- 
muck. In less than twelve years from its settlement Cambridge 
had within its limits a church, school, college, printing-press, and 
Indian mission, the influences of these having a marked effect upon 
its gi'owth and pirosperity. In 1647 the townsmen took a census, 
showing 135 ratable persons, 90 houses, valued at £2,537, 776 



144 APPENDIX. 

acres of broken land, valued at £5 an acre, 1,084 acres of unbroken 
land at 10 sliillings an acre, 500 acres of marsh at 10 shillings an 
acre, 258 acres of " ffarr medowes"at 6 sliillings an acre, U08 
cows, 131 oxen, 20 horses, 37 sheeji, 62 swine, and 58 goats. 
In 1649 the meeting-house on Dunster Street, jiroving too 
small for the incrensing congregation, a new building about 
forty feet square was put up on " Watchhouse Hill," whicli was 
at the southwesterly corner of the College yard, near the pres- 
ent Law School. The town grew gradually, new streets being 
opened, the old ones made wider, and there was an improve- 
ment in the style of the buildings. The " Great Bridge " was 
built leading to Brighton, and was considered a wonderful en- 
gineering achievement, and so it was for the time. From 1680 to 
1688 the number of taxable residents increased to 191, the number 
of families in 1680 being 121. In 1703 a new meeting-house was 
built ujion the site of the old one, which had stood for about fifty 
years. About the middle of the year 1725 the General Court 
voted £1,000 to be used " for the building of a handsome wooden 
dwelling-house, barn and outhouses, on some part of the College 
land," to be occupied by Mr. Wadsworth, the President of the 
College, and his successors in office. The house was built and is 
standing to-day, with its quaint gambrel roof, an historic land- 
mark, on Harvard Square, nearly opposite Dunster Street. It was 
used for one liundred and twenty years after as a jtlace of residence 
for the College presidents, and preserves substantially the same 
general appearance as when first built. The interior, with its 
spacious stairways and entries, its time-honored rooms inhabited 
during the |iast years by so many illustrious personages, is an 
object of interest to thousands of yearly visitors. In 1721-22 the 
General Court met at Cambridge on account of a smallpox epi- 
demic at Boston, the sessions being held in the meeting-liouse 
fronting on Harvard Square, when, after a time, it liad to be again 
removed by reason of the pestilence, which raged so fiercely that 
the College exercises were broken up and the students scattered. 
Again, in 1740, the students were dismissed and the Commence- 
ment post])oned by tlie prevalence of a "throat distemper," and in 
1750 by another visitation of the smalljiox, which caused the 
death of nearlj' one third of the inhabitants of Cambridge. Dur- 
ing the year 1740 Kev. George Whitefield, the celebrated Wes- 



APPENDIX. 145 

leyan evangelist, preached a sermon under an elm-tree whieli stood 
at the nortliwest corner of the Common, a few rods from the tree 
that became known afterward as the " Washington Elm," and also 
delivered another sermon in the College yard, attracting large 
crowds of people. He severely criticised the College ; called it an 
inferior institution, without discipline ; said that bad boolcs were 
fashionable among the students and tutors. His strictures were so 
severe upon the New England clergy that much ill-feeling was 
created against him, and he was not allowed to preach in the 
meeting-liouse. When he again visited New England the Cdllege 
authorities published a document, in which he was arraigned as 
" an uncharitable, censorious, and slanderous man, guilty of gross 
breaches of the Ninlli Commandment, a deluder of the people," and 
an "itinerant and e.vciting preacher," and such was the feeling of 
the clergy and laymen that a vote was adopted that they would 
not invite him into their pulpits. The reverend gentleman lived 
long enough to obtain his revenge upon the College ; for when, in 
1764, its library was destroyed by fire, Mr. Whitefield not only 
presented it with a new library, but obtained by his personal in- 
fluence a considerable sum of money from persons in England. 
la 1750 a few blocks or squares made up the jirincipal part of the 
town, and in the diverging, straggling streets there wei'e a con- 
siderable number of scattered houses. Against the market-place 
on the west, near wjiere now stands Lyceum Hall, there were the 
court-house and prison. There were two routes to Boston, one 
leading over the " Great Bridge," tiirougli Brigliton, Brookline, and 
Roxbury, the distance being eight miles. This was indicated by 
a rude stone with the inscription "Eight Miles to Boston," which 
stone was found a few years ago, together with the foundation 
stones of the old meeting-house, when the Dane Law School build- 
ing was removed several liundred feet from its original site. The 
stone was again set up in Harvard Square, opposite one of the 
entrances to the College yard, where it still remains in a some- 
what dilapidated condition. The other route 'was over the "broad 
way to Charlestown," now Kirkland Street, which led to a ferry. 

Affairs were yet in a ]irimitive condition, notwithstanding the 
great stride which liad been made toward civilization. A con- 
siderable ])art of the town was yet a forest infested by bears, a 
great many of which were killed and several persons wei'e killed by 
10 



146 APPENDIX. 

them. In the " Boston News-Letter," newspaper, of Sej)!. 19, 1754, 
there was an iti m which tells of a bear that was pursued in wliat 
is now East Cambridge a few days before, driven into tlie river 
and killed. In 175G the town had grown to such an extent that a 
new meeting-house was built, wliicii was used for seventy years 
for the College Commencement e.\ercise.s. In it, in 1779, the dele- 
gates from the towns in Massaeliusetts met and framed the Con- 
stitution of the Commonwealth, whieh the people ratified in 1780. 
There, also, Lafayette was welcomed on his return to this country 
in 1824. The building was taken down in 1833. In 17G4, by 
reason of the breaking out of smallpox iu Boston, Harvard Hall 
was occupied by the General Court, and on the 25th of January, 
during a severe snow-storm, the building with its contents, the 
library and scientific apparatus, was destroyed by fire. The town 
in 1769 was under the government of a board of selectmen, who 
held their meetings at Braddish's tavern on Brighton Street, be- 
tween Ilai-vard Square and Mount Auburn Street. That some- 
thing more than the dry discussion of the town's aftUirs was done 
is shown by an ancient bill taken from the town tiles, covering ten 
months of the year, the items being principally "dinners and 
drink," "flip and punch," " wine and eating," " fli]) and cheese," 
" wine and flip," " jjunch and cheese," furnished the selectmen, the 
total amounting to £4 10s. 7d. During the month of September, 
1759, the building of a jilace of worship according to the faith of 
the Church of England was decided upon. Tiiis was an impor- 
tant religious event, as the only church organization up to this lime 
was the Congregational. In October, 1761, the building then and 
now known as "Christ Church" was erected upon a lot of land 
fronting the Common, and there it now stands, replete with 
historical reminiscences, the only alteration ever made in it being 
an increase of its height by placing thereon an additional story, 
and a slight increase to its length, the latter alteration being maile 
in 1857. Cambridge in 1776 was still in a rural state, environed 
by marshes, bounded on the north by the basin of Charles 1 liver, 
on the south by the same river, on the north by Welles' Creek, 
since known as Miller's River, and now blotted out of existence, 
it having been filled up within a few years. The settled part 
of the town was in the western confines, and beyond that was 
marsii land known as Fresh Pond meadows. There were roads or 



APPENDIX. 147 

lanes leading to Ciimbridgeport and East Cambridge, the former 
being largely made up of mar.sh land and the latter devoted to 
large farms. In Harvard Square was the court-house, the meeting- 
house, and the jail, and in the centre of the Square a then ancient 
elm-tree, removed within the past ten years to make a standing- 
place for the cars of the Union Railway Company. Near the tree 
stood the town pump. Away down beyond the woods and 
marshes was the estate of Richard Lechmere, which embraced a 
large part of what is known as East Cambridge to-day, and for 
many years known as Lechmere Point. In Cambridgepurt, in the 
part now bounded by Ininan and Bigelovv Streets, was the large 
mansion occupied by Ralph Inman, which, later in the century, 
became historic as the headquarters of General Israel Putnam, of 
Revolutionary fame. The "Port" an<l the "Point," with the 
exceiition of the Lechmere and the Inman buildings and a few 
others, was a wild of woodland, swamp, and pasture. The burial- 
ground, at the corner of Garden Street and Harvard Square, had 
then become comparatively old, and contained the remains of 
Stephen Daye, the first printer, Samuel Green, who succeeded 
him. Rev. Thomas Shepard, the founder of the church, President 
Dunster, and most of the early setilers. Across the Common 
stood, and still stands, the house of Jonathan Hastings, with its 
gambrel roof, since known as the Holmes House, it being the 
birthplace of Oliver Wendell Holmes and the headquarters of 
General Artemas Ward during the Revolution. The homestead 
of the Brattle family stood upon the spot where now stands the 
University Press of John Wilson & Son. And almost every foot of 
ground in the vicinity is rich in historical incident. Cambridge 
took the lead in the events that preceded the Revolution. In 
1765, two weeks before the action of the General Court in opposi- 
tion to the Stamp Act, it was voted in town-meeting that it was 
the opinicm of the town that the inhabitants of the province had a 
legal claim to all the natural, inherent, constitutional rights of 
Englishmen, and that the Stamp Act was ari-Jnfraction upon these 
rights, and they desired that this vote be recorded in the town 
book, that the children yet unborn may see the wish their ances- 
tors had for their freedom and happiness. 

In 1772 it elected nine of its ]irincipal citizens upon the Com- 
mittee of Correspondence, which, with delegates from other 



148 APPENDIX. 

towns, met in convention in 1773, at Faneuil Hall, and advised 
resistance to the tea tax, ])assing resolutions in town-meeting to 
that effect. Gener.al Gage being in the occujjation of Boston, a 
Provincial Congress, with John Hancock, President, met in 1774 
at Cambridge, first in tlie Court House in Harvard Square, and 
thence in the meeting-house, the first business being to elect a 
Committee of Safety and a Committee of Supplies, Abraham 
Watson, John Pigeon, and Thomas Gardner being selected from 
Cambridge. In February the Provincial Congress met again in 
the old meeting-liouse, and a committee of five was appointed to 
watch the movements of the British troops stationed at Boston, 
John Pigeon being the principal member of the committee. On 
the night of the 18th of April, John Pigeon, having been instructed 
to arranwc a system of couriers to alarm the country, was on the 
alert, and was warned by the lantern in the North Church steeple 
and by the information furnished through Paul Revere, that an 
expedition was in progress. That same night the foot of the in- 
vader was upon the soil of Cambridge, and a force of British em- 
barked from Boston about midnight and landed at Lechmere 
Point, now East Cambridge, at a ])oint in the vicinity of the S])ot 
where the Middlesex County Jail and House of Correction now 
stands. It marched across the marshes to what is now Milk Street 
in Somerville, and ])roceeded to Concord, through North Avenue. 
The alarm was sounded, and the Cambridge militia were hastily 
trnthercd and pursued the foe, under the command of Samuel 
Thatcher. The next morning the planks of the '• Great Briilge" 
were removed and i)iled up on the Cambridge side, to impede the 
movements of Biitish reinforcements under the command of Lord 
Percy. The story of that day at Concord and Lexington is so 
familiar that it need not be repeated here, and the ])art taken by 
the Cambridge militia in harassing the British on their retreat is 
an oft-told tale. P'or a year following that time Cambridge was 
the headquarters of the American army, and its buildings were 
turned into barracks .and hospitals for the sick and wounded. The 
army consisted of about 15,000 men, all quartered in the town, 
under the command of General ArtemasAVard. Beside the barracks 
and lios])itals the troops were in the College buildings, the Presi- 
dent's house, and Chi-ist Ciiurch. Fortifications were begun, the 
earliest leading from the College yard toward the river. The Col- 



APPENDIX. 149 

lege library find apparatus had been removed to Andover. On the 
16th of June a force of 12,000 infantry and a detachment of artil- 
lery were ordered to appear on Cambridge Common, where, after 
a prayer by President Langdon of the College, they marched, 
under the command of Colonel William Prescott, of Pepperell, 
through Kirkhind Street to Bunker Hill. The next morning other 
troops followed. The result of that day was to transform Cam- 
bridge as a camp into Cambridge as a hospital. Within a week 
from the battle of Bunker Hill, General Washington arrived at 
Cambridge, and on the 3d of July assumed command of the Con- 
tinental army, the ceremony taking place beneath the shade of 
the then old tree, which has become famous under the name of 
the Washington Elm, and at which there is a stone with an in- 
scription recording the event. Fortifications were thrown up at 
Leclimere Point, at Fort Wasliington, at Putnam Avenue, at Dana 
Hill, across Cambridge Street, through the land now occupied as 
Hovey's Nursery, and elsewhere. During the summer of 1775 
10,000 troojis were stationed in the town, and a number were 
killed by the stray cannon-shots thrown into the place by the 
British. General Washington, having been quartered in the Pres- 
ident's house, afterward removed to Brattle Street, and established 
his headqu.irters in the house now owned and occupied by the poet 
Longfellow. On Jan. 1, 1776, the new flag, with the thirteen 
stripes, representing the number of Colonies, was unfurled on 
Cambridge Common. Batteries were equipped at Lechmere Point 
and at Fort Washington, that at Lechmere Point being upon the 
hill, since removed, on the site of the Putnam School-house on 
Fourth Street, and Boston was bombarded from these points. An 
attack from the British was daily expected, but, instead, Boston 
was evacuated, and the troops at Cambridge crossed the river 
and took possession, and the military period in the history of 
Cambridge came to an end. 

The population in 1776 was 1,586. A valuatipn of Cambridge 
in 1781 gave 417 polls, 229 houses, 246 barns,' 1 store, 4 distil 
houses, mills, etc., 1,446 acres of English mowing, 777 acres of 
tillage land, 1,402 acres of salt and fresh meadow, 3,523 acres of 
pasture, 1,185 acres of wood and unimproved land, £6,919 in 
money at interest and on hand, £990 in goods, wares, and mer- 
chandise, 1,414 horses, oxen, sheep, goats, and swine, and £650 in 



150 APPENDIX. 

"coaches, chaises, etc." An important step in the progress of the 
time was the building of the West Boston Bridge. Autiiurity was 
given by the General Court to Francis Dana and associates to con- 
struct a bridge in 1792, and it was opened in 1703, tiie cost of 
building being $76,700. It had a wonderful effect in giving an 
impetus to the growth of the town. Lots were laid out, streets 
opened, buildings were erected, canals and dikes were constructed, 
and ill 180.5 it was made a "port of entry" for vessels, that end of 
the town being known as Cambridgeport. Mr. Amlrew Cragie 
])uvchased nearly all the tract now known as East Cambridge, and 
in 1809 a bridge to Boston was built, which is still called Cragie's 
Bridge. Both these were toll-bridges, and so contiiuied until 
1858, when they were purchased by Cambridge and Boston and 
made fiee. The embargo proclaimed by President Jefferson in 
1807 and the war of 1812 seriously affected tlie commerei::! growth 
of Cambridge. 

Of the church history there is much to relate, but it cannot be 
given here. In 1846 a city charter was granted; Mr. James D. 
Green, who is now living, being elected the first Mayor. Tiie 
same year the police department was organized, and the follow- 
ing year the volunteer fii-e companies were superseded by a paid 
department. In 1852 the (Gaslight Company was incorporated 
and the streets lighted wiili g.;s before the en<l of the year. The 
Cambridge Water-Wfirks Con-]iany was incorporated in 1852, or- 
ganized in 1853, and began the Laying of pipes that year, the works 
being purchased by the city in 1865. In 1853 the Cambridge 
Railroad Company was incorporated for the construction of a horse- 
railroad to Boston ; in 1854 the track was located, and the Union 
Railway Company was incorporated in 1855 for the purpose of 
operating the road. The first street paving was in 1856 at the 
easterly end of Cambridge Street, East Cambridge, .and the first 
laying of brick sidewalks under assessment was in 1869. The 
first poor-house was on the corner of Brighton ami South Streets. 
This was given up in 1786, and one established on the corner of 
North Avenue and Cedar Street, and continued until 1818, when 
a brick building was erected on Norfolk Street, opposite Worces- 
ter Street, Cambridgepoi't, which was burned in 1836. A new 
building was then provided on the banks of Charles River, be- 
tween Western Avenue and River Street, where the Riverside 



APPENDIX. 151 

Press now stninls. Tliis was abandoned in 1851, and tlie present 
building, off Nortli Avenue, near the lines of Arlington and Som- 
erville, w.is erected. In 1815 the manufacture of glass upon a 
largo scale was begun at East Cambridge. Mount Auburn Ceme- 
tery was consecrated in 1831, and the Cambridge Cemetery in 
1854. The present organization of public schools dates from 1868. 
The population in 1776, one hundred and forty-six years after 
Winthrop and his associates made a settlement, was 1,586, and 
in 1790 it was 2,115, while now, in tlie two hundred and fiftieth 
year of its existence, it numbers over 52,000, with a valuation of 
§49,449,520. In 1861 Cambridge organized and furnished tlie first 
company in the United States which was enlisted for the defence of 
the government in 1861. To James P.Richardson, a great-grand- 
son of Moses Richardson, who was slain on the day of the battle of 
Lexington, belongs this honor. He was then in the practice of the 
law, having his office on Main Street, Cambridgeport. On Apiil 
13, 1861, he had enlisted sixty persons, and they were accepted by 
Governor Andrew. Two days later the President of the United 
States issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers, and on 
the 16th the orders were issued by the Governor. The day fol- 
lowing, Captain Richardson, with ninety-five men, was en route for 
Fortress Monroe, where, on the Gth of May following, the company 
was mustered in. He is now living in Texas. During the war 
Cambridge fiirni>hed 4,135 men to the army, of which 200 were 
commissioned officers, and 453 men to the navy, — about one sixth 
of the entire popidation, which was 26,060 in 1860 and 29,112 in 
18G5. 

It is impossible within the sjiace of a newspaper article to 
do justice to the important and stirring events which have been 
enacted in Cambridge since 1630. A large number of the most 
important occurrences have been detailed, but much of interest has 
been necessarily omitted. Greater prominence has been given to 
events connected with the earlier times, as possessi^ig more interest 
than those of a biter date. With the liistory of our country its 
citizens have been from the first largely identified, and its territory 
is filled with spots made sacred by the associations of the past. 
Within its borders the first printing-press in America was put in 
operation ; on its Connnon the original flag of the Union was first 
unfurled. The first Continental Congress was here organized, and 



152 APPENDIX. 

the first official protest against tlie unjust Stamp Act was given 
utterance to by its citizens in town-meeting assembled. Here 
Wasliington first took command of the Continental army, and the 
first company was here enlisted fur the war of the Rebellion. Its 
College and schools rank the first in the country, and have given 
to the world men of the highest culture and tlie most extended 
influence, and it has always been foremcjst in advancing the cause 
of civil and relisious liberty. 



GOVERNMENT 

OF 

THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 

1880. 



MAYOR. 
JAMES M. W. HALL. 

ALDERMEN. 

Ward I. 

FRANCIS L. CHAPMAN. — NATHAX G. GOOCH. 

Ward II. 

HEXIIY II. GILMORE. 

Ward III. 

GEORGE R. BRINE. — BE\.JAMIN F. DAVIES. — DANIEL R. .SORTWELL. 

Ward rv. 

GEORGE D. CHAMBERLAIN.- EDWARD T. NICHOLS. 

Ward V. 

MICHAEL CORCORAN. — MOSES 0. IIO\\"E. 



COMMON COUNCIL. 

President .... CHARLES WALKER. 

Waud I. — 'William B. Durant, William A. Hayes, Jr., Jame.s M. 
Hilton, John Read. 

Ward II. — C. G. H. Bennink, George C. Bent, George A. Davis, 
George \Y. Goodnow, Frederick H. Holton, Isaac A. Nay. 

Wakd III. — Samuel W. Bailey, John Conlan, John L. Fahy, 
Samuel S. Hamill. 

Ward IV. — William H.Dodge, Alfred Fitzpatrick, William L. 
Lathrop, Charles A\*alker. 

Ward V. — Sanford II. Dudley, Henry K. Parsons. 



154 



APPEXDIX. 



Ckg dert 

CUrt of Committea . . . 
Clerk of lie Coamon Council 

Cay SUicitor 

AtatUint City Clerk . . . 
Cily ileaengtr 



JrsTTs A. Jacobs. 
John McDrrFiE. 
J. Waeeex Cottos. 
JOHX W. Hajoioxd. 
Walteu W. Pike. 
Francis L. Peatt. 



HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS. 

Cily Engineer William S. Baebocr. 

Claef of PfAici Feedeeick W. IIagae. 

Chief Engiriter Thomas J. Casey. 

Superintendent of StreeU Bai.vbeidge W. Woodard. 

Superintendent of Lamps Bexjamix F. Xockse. 



FINANCIAL DEPAFfTMENT. 



A udilOT of A ICO u n fr 
TreoMurer .... 



Attestors . 



>AMi"KL E. Chandler. 

William W. Dallingeb. 
( .\ndeew J. Gkeex, 
^, Edmind B. Whitman, 
(Aetemas Z. Beowx. 
/"Thomas Steakns, 
I .John S. Pollakd, 
' Fra.ncis H. Sticknet, 
I .Joseph Whittemore, 

Oliver B. Campbell. 



SCHOOL COMMrTTEE. 



llou. jAMts M. W 

A. P. Pea BOOT. 
hobace'e. sccdder. 
John Wilv»n. 
JamE'^ 11. Hall. 
Phebe M. Kendall. 
St'MNER Albee. 
JoH.N O'Brien 

GeOROE A. COBCBS. 



Hall, Chairman ex officio. 
I Otis S. Bbowx. 

A. P. Morse. 
I William H. Orcctt. 
I Sarah S. Jacob.s. 

E. H. .Stevens. 

William Fox Richardsos. 

William A. Start. 

W. W. Wellington, Sec'y- 



Superintendent rf Schools 



Francis Cogswell. 



APPENDIX. 155 

WATER BOARD. 

Tlie Mayor, and President of the Common Council, ex officio. 
George P. Carter, President. 
Knowltox S. Chaffee. Chester AV. Kingsley. 

J. Warren Mehhill. Henry L. Eustis. 

Clerk JusTix A. Jacobs. 

Superintendent of Water M'urls . . Hiram Nkvoxs. 
Water Registrar J. Wahrex Cotton. 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 

The Mayor, ex officio. Chairman. 
SuMXER Albee. Ezra Parmenter. 

Jonas C. Wellington. Charles E. Vaughan. 

George D. Chamberlain. David P. Muzzey, Clerk. 



WARD OFFICERS. 

Ward I. — Warden, Eclimnid Miles. Clerk, John Gorman. In- 
spectors, George Allen, George T. Barrington, James A. JSlartin. 

Ward II. — Warden, Ciiarles R. Patch. Clerk, P. Allen Liudsey. 
Inspectors, Edward W. S. Jones, Horace G. Kemp, Dvvight M. Turner. 

Ward III. — Warden, Daniel B. Shaughnessey. Clerk, Silas E. Buck. 
Inspectors, James E. Doyle, William J. Breen, William A. Stevens. 

Ward IV.— Warden. Isaac S. Peai". Clerk, Frank H. Teele. In- 
spectors, John Locke, William R. Jlitchell, George C. Howlett. 

Ward V. — Wardeii, Charles L. Fuller. Clerk, George T. Presby. 
Inspectors, Sylvanus G. Griffin, Joseph Newman, James F.oper. 



REPRESENTATIVES IN THE GENERAL CpURT, 

Thomas AV. Higginson. Jamis H. Sparrow. 

George AV. Park. A. Carter Webber. 

Henry J. AVells. John McSorley. 



Senator, Third Middlesex District (Cambridge)- 
ASA P. MOUSE. 



CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 



MAYORS, CITY CLERKS, PRESIDENTS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL, 
CLERKS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL, AND TREASURERS, 

From the Incorporation of thi; City to 1880. 









PKESUiE.-iT 


Clekk 






Mator. 


City Clsrk. 


CoMMO.N Council, 


Common Cousca. 


TREiSCRER 


I84n. 


Jamc» D. Green. 


Lucius R. Paige, 


I.saac Livermore. 


Charles S. Newell, 


Abel W. Bruce. 


1847. 


James D. Green. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


John Sargent. 


Charles S. Newell. 


Abel W. Bruce. 


1848. 


Sidney WiUard. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


John C. Dodge 


Charles S Newell. 


Abel W, Bruce. 


1849. 


Sidney Willard. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


Sauiuel P. Ileywood. 


Eben M. Dunbar. 


Samuel Slocomb. 


1850. 


Sidney Willard. 


Lucius R Paige. 


Samuel P. Ileywood. 


Eben M. Dunbar. 


Samuel Slocomb. 


1851. 


George Stevens. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


John S. Lodd. 


Eben M. Dunbar. 


Samuel Slocomb. 


1852. 


George SU'vens. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


John Sargent. 


Eben M. Dunbar. 


Samuel Slocomb. 


1853. 


Jamea D. Green. 


Lucius U. Paige. 


John Sargent. 


Eben M. Dunbar. 


Samuel Slocomb. 


1854. 


Abraham Edwards. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


John C. Dodge. 


Henry Thayer 


Samuel Slocomb. 


1355. 


Zebina L. Raymond. 


Lucius R. Paige. 


Alanson Bigelow. 


Henry Thayer. 


A, J Webber. 


1856. 


John Sargent. 


Henry Thayer. 


George S. Saunders. 


James M. Chase. 


Jo.«eph A. Holmes. 


1857. 


John Sargent. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


George S. Saunders. 


James M. Chase. 


Joseph A, Holmes. 


1858. 


John Sargent, 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


James C. Fisk. 


James M. Chase. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1859. 


Jolm Sargent. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


James C Fisk. 


James M Chase, 


Joseph Whitney. 


1860. 


James D. Green. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Hamlin R. Harding. 


James M Chase. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1861. 


James D Greco. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Hamlin R. Harding. 


James M. Chase. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1802. 


Charles Theo. Russell. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


.lared Shepard. 


Jo.scpb G. Holt 


Joseph Whitney. 


1S03. 


George ". Richardson. 


Justin A Jacobs. 


George S. Saunders. 


Joseph G Holt 


Joseph Whitney. 


1Sj4. 


Zebina U. Raymond. 


Justin A Jacobs. 


George S. Saunders. 


Joseph G. Holt. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1885. 


J. Warren .Merrill 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


John S. March. 


Joseph Holt. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1838. 


J. Warren Merrill. 


Justin A. Jacobs, 


John S. March. 


Joseph G. Holt. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1837. 


Ezra Parmenrer. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Marshall T. Bigolow. 


Joseph G Molt. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1838. 


Charles II. Saunders. 


Justin A, Jacobs. 


Henry W. Muzzey. 


J. Warren Cotton, 


Joseph Whitney. 


1839. 


Charles H. Saunders. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Henry W. Muzzey, 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1870. 


Hamlin R. Harding. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Joseph H. Converse. 


J.Warren Cotton. 


Joseph Whitney. 


H71. 


Hamlin R. Harding. 


Justin A. Jacobs, 


Joseph H. Converse. 


J. Warren Cotton. 


,losepb Whitney. 


1872 


Henry 0. Houghton. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Alvaro Bloiigett. 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1873. 


Isaac Bradford. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Alvaro Blnlgett. 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1374. 


Isaac Bradford. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


George F. Piper. 


J. Warrcn Cotton. 


Jcseph Whitney. 


n76. 


Isaac Dradford. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


George F. Pi|ier 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1876. 


Isaac Bradford. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Frank A. Allen 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Jrseph Whitney, 


1877. 


Frank A. Allen. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Perez G Porter. 


J Warren Cotton. 


Joseph Whitney. 


1878. 


Samuel L. Montague. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


George S. Saunders. 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Wm. W. Dallinger. 


1879. 


Samuel L. Montague. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


George S. Saunders. 


J. Warren Cotton. 


Wm. W. Dallinter. 


1830. 


James M. W. Hall. 


Justin A. Jacobs. 


Charles Walker. 


J. Warren Cotton, 


Wm W. Dallinger. 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 



Pace 
AXDEOS 9 

" Arm-chair, From my " (poem) 16,30 

Bailey, Thomas 45 

Beard, Collector A. W., response by 79 

Biljle, translated into the Indian language 143 

"Blacksmith, The Village" 10 

Braddish's tavern 146 

Bradish, Sister 50 

Braintree Company 105, 1.39 

Brattle House 57, 147 

Bridge, the great 144 

Bridge, West Boston 150 

Cambridge as the seat of government 51 

early aristocracy of 56 

extent of 52, 141 

history, epitome of 138 

in the Rebellion 63, 121, 151 

in the Revolution 120 

named 50, 85, 86, 142 

needed improvements in 100 

peaceful progress of 64 

Canal from the Charles River 139 

Candler, Hon. John W., response by R8 

Celebration, the 15 

Cemeteries, Mount Auburn and Cambridge 151 

Census in 1647 143 

in 1776, 1781 149 

• in 1880 151 

Cheeshahteaumuck, Caleb 53, 143 

Churches, first synod of 49, 132 

Church, First, foundation of 106 

first three ministers of 9 

Christ 146 

Shepard Memorial 141 



160 



City charter (organization of departments) 150 

City government for 1880 lij:{ 

City clerks since 18-16 ISO 

College, Harvard, foundation of 50, 141, H2 

Colonies, United 11 

Committee of Arrangements, 1880 11, Hi 

of Correspondence, 1772 147 

of Safety, 1774 148 

Common Council, presidents of, since 1846 166 

clerks of, since 1846 156 

Congress, first provincial 02, 148 

Constitution of the Commonwealth, framed 146 

Corlet, Elijah uO, 110, 133, 143 

Counsellors, "mandamus," wrath against 58 

Cragie, Andrew 150 

Danfohtii, Judge 58 

Deputy-Governor Thomas 9, 11 

Davenport, John 8 

Daye, Stephen 08,114,142 

Dudley, Governor Thomas 9,11,46,72,105,110,132,141 

Dunster, President 115, 133 

Election, an, 1637 51 

Eliot, John 143 

President Charles W., addresses by 25, 94 

Elm, the Wasliington 8, 137, 149 

Evarts, Hon. W. M., letter from 124 

Everett, Dr. William, response (poem) by 85 

E.xecution, an, 1755 55 

Flag, Union, first unfurled 02, 149 

Fort Putnam 9, 10, 1.35 

" Fortified place," resolve to build a 45, 138 

" Freeman's Oath," first book printed in America 143 

Frost, Elder 54 

Fuller, Margaret, house of 57 

Gari>neii, Isaac 136 

Garfield, Hon. J. A., letter from 124 

General Court at Cambridge 144, 146 

Glover, Rev. Jesse 115 

Joss 142 

Goffe 54 

Edward 119, 1.S3 

Governing Council 58 

Great Bridge 144 

Green, Samuel 117, 142 



161 



Hall, Mayor J. M. W., addresses by 22, 71 

Hallowell, Benjamin 59 

Harvard College, its influence witli the Legislature 117 

foundation of 50, 141, 142 

its relation to Cambridge 97 

the "liot-bed of the rebellion" 63 

Harvard, John 142 

Hicks, John 61, 136 

Higginson, Colonel T. W., oration by 44 

response by Ill 

Hoar, Hon. George F., letter from 124 

Holmes, Dr. O. W., poem by (" Home") 32 

Holmes House 62, 147 

"Home" (poem) 33 

Hooker, Rev. Thomas 9,48,105,119,1.37 

Hooker's company, removal of 48, 141 

Houghton, Hon. H. O., response by 114 

Inman, Ralph, house of 134, 147 

Keniston, Dr. J. M 20 

Leciimere, Richard, estate of 147 

Lee, Judge 59 

Leverett, Hon. John 9, 137 

Lexington, battle of, night preceding the 61 

Lincoln, N 20 

Long, Governor John T)., response by 88 

Longfellow, Henry \V., house of 57 

remarks by 29 

Lowell, James Russell, house of 57 

letter from 127 

Magoun, a. B 19 

Maisters, John 139 

Mansfield, Daniel 19 

Marcy, William 01, 1S6 

Massachusetts, debt and valuation of, in 1783 102 

Mayors since 1846 156 

McKenzie, Rev. Alexander, response by , 104 

Meeting-house, first, site of the 131 

Memorial Tablets in Cambridge (descriptive sketch) 131 

Mitchell, Rev. Jonathan 9, 137 

Mmiicipal regulations, the first 140 

"Naming Cambridge, 1636" (poem) 86 

Newell, Rev. William, prayer by 40 

Newtowne, first name of Cambridge 40, 71, 138 

11 



162 



Newtownc, clianged to Cambridge 60 

enlarged 141 

first inhabitauts of 139 

Oliver, Lieutenant-Governor 57, 60 

Oliver House 57 

"Palltsadoe," office and extent of 47,139 

Peabody, Rev. A. P., prayer by 21 

Prcscott, Colonel William 149 

President's house 144 

Press, censorship of , 117 

Printing-press, the first 142 

Putnam, General, headquarters of t>, U, 1-j4, 147 

Railroad, Cambridge horse 150 

Union horse 150 

Rebellion, first company in the war of 63, 151 

Regicides, Goffe and Whalley 54 

Revolution, the approach of 56, 58 

Richardson, Captain James P 63, 151 

Moses 61, 136, 151 

Riddle, George, reading by 20 

Riedescl, Madame, description of old families 56 

Rogers, Rev. John 26 

Routes to Boston, two 145 

Ruggles House 57 

Russell, Jason 136 

Saunders, Hon. Charles II., response by 118 

School-house, site of the first 133 

Shepard, Margaret 107 

Rev. Thomas 9, 48, 106, 110, 137, 141 

Slavery in Massachusetts 55 

Stamp Act, opposition to 147 

Stone, Samuel 105 

Streets in 1034 140 

Synod, the first 49, 132 

Tahlkts, memorial 10, 13] 

Thomas, W. K 20 

Tory Row 57 

Treason, petty, punishment for 55 

Treasurers since 1846 156 

Tree, the " spreading chestnut " 16 

Vane, Sir Henry 51 

Vassall, Henry 57 

House 58 



INDEX. 163 



Ward, General Artemas 147, 148 

AVaclsworth, Benjamin 27, 144 

Wasliington Elm 8, 137, 149 

Washington's Headquarters 8, 11, 149 

Watson, Jacob 8 

Wells, William, school of 67 

Whalley 54 

Whitefiekl, Rev. George, his strictures upon Harvard College 144 

Whittier, John G., letter from 12.5 

WigglesHorth, Rev. Edward 9, 137 

Wilson, Rev. John 51 

Winthrop, Governor John 45, 72, 105 

Hannah 61 

Hon. Robert C, letter from 125 

Winship, Jason 136 

Wyman, Jabez 136 



Uuiversity Press : John Wilson and Sou, Cambridge. 



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